596 Neurocognitive Disorders
Delirium
Diagnostic Criteria    
A. A disturbance in attention (i.e., reduced ability to direct, focus, sustain, and shift atten-
tion) and awareness (reduced orientation to the environment).
B. The disturbance develops over a short period of time (usually hours to a few days), rep-
resents a change from baseline attention and awareness, and tends to fluctuate in se-
verity during the course of a day.
C. An additional disturbance in cognition (e.g., memory deficit, disorientation, language,
visuospatial ability, or perception). 
D. The disturbances in Criteria A and C are not better explained by another preexisting,
established, or evolving neurocognitive disorder and do not occur in the context of a
severely reduced level of arousal, such as coma.
E. There is evidence from the history, physical examination, or laboratory findings that the
disturbance is a direct physiological consequence of another medical condition, sub-
stance intoxication or withdrawal (i.e., due to a drug of abuse or to a medication), or
exposure to a toxin, or is due to multiple etiologies.
Specify whether:
Substance intoxication delirium:  This diagnosis should be made instead of sub-
stance intoxication when the symptoms in Criteria A and C predominate in the clinical
picture and when they are sufficiently severe to warrant clinical attention.
Coding note: The ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM codes for the [specific substance] in-
toxication delirium are indicated in the table below. Note that the ICD-10-CM code
depends on whether or not there is a comorbid substance use disorder present for
the same class of substance. If a mild substance use disorder is comorbid with the