Cerebrospinal fluid somatostatin in delirium.

Cerebrospinal fluid somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (CSF SLI) was determined for 67 elderly patients who met the DSM-III criteria for delirium and for 19 age-matched controls. As a group, and also when subdivided according to the type of delirium, severity of cognitive decline or the type of central nervous system disease, the delirious patients showed significant reductions of SLI compared with the controls, together with a declining trend associated with increasing cognitive dysfunction. These findings are in accordance with previous observations that reduced CSF SLI is associated with diseases in which cognitive function is disturbed and they extend this finding to delirium.