Exercise therapy may shorten delirium in intensive care, with limited certainty
A Cochrane review suggests shorter delirium and intensive care stays, but small outcome samples and study limitations leave important questions unresolved.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Exercise therapy may shorten delirium in adults who develop it after admission to intensive care. The review also found that intensive care stays were probably shorter. Confidence differed by outcome, and the evidence does not establish effects on delirium severity or quality of life, which the included studies did not assess.
This abstract-based review summary is limited by small samples for individual outcomes, concerns about bias, and imprecise estimates. No included trial compared exercise therapy with medication.
What researchers found
Mean difference in delirium duration
Exercise versus usual care or no intervention during ICU care; 4 studies, 121 participants. Evidence certainty was low.
A specific hospital population
The trials addressed treatment after delirium had been diagnosed in intensive care, including patients with or without mechanical ventilation. They do not directly answer whether exercise prevents delirium before it develops.
Safety evidence remains limited
The studies reporting adverse events recorded none in either group, but this evidence had low certainty. That finding cannot establish that every exercise approach is harmless for every critically ill patient.
The original publication
Exercise therapy for the treatment of delirium in the intensive care unit.
Garegnani L, Ivaldi D, Burgos MA et al.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40792601
- Record checked
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