Nutritional Therapy for Delirium in Elderly Hospitalized Subjects

The investigators have developed a proprietary blend of amino acids that they think will help to prevent or reduce the severity of delirium in older people who are hospitalized for certain infections. In this study, up to 45 people will be enrolled. 15 will be asked to drink this blend twice a day for up to 4 days, and 15 will drink a placebo (sugar water) for the same time period. The other 15 subjects will be non-delirious control subjects who do not consume any study products.

This will be a controlled, randomized pilot study to determine the effectiveness of a specific amino acid supplement developed by the investigators versus standard treatment in mitigating delirium in geriatric patients at hospitalized UAMS for certain infections. Up to 30 delirious and 15 non-delirious subjects of any gender or ethnicity will be enrolled (45 subjects maximum). 15 will be asked to drink this blend twice a day for up to 4 days, and 15 will drink a placebo (sugar water) for the same time period. The other 15 subjects will be non-delirious control subjects who do not consume any study products. All subjects will undergo 2-5 blood draws and 3-7 cognitive assessments while they are admitted to the hospital, depending on study group assignment and discharge date.

Subjects will ingest an oral amino-acid containing nutritional supplement twice daily for up to 4 days.

The active study product (20g per serving) contains 13.6g of amino acids and natural flavors, citric acid, malic acid, and stevia for flavoring.

CAM-S is a tool to determine and quantify delirium. Subjects in the non-control arms will undergo this test twice each day. The score ranges from 0-7, with lower numbers being better (little to no signs of delirium).

Inclusion Criteria: Delirious cohort Aged 60 years and older. Documented presence of either delirium, acute confusion, or altered mental status in medical record. Currently hospitalized with a diagnosis of one of the following: sepsis/septicemia Pneumonia Urinary tract infection Clostridium-difficile infection Other bone or tissue infection Fever of unknown origin Inclusion Criteria: NON-Delirious cohort Aged 60 years and older. Current diagnosis of one of the following: sepsis/septicemia Pneumonia Urinary tract infection Clostridium-difficile infection Other bone or tissue infection Fever of unknown origin Exclusion Criteria: all subjects Chronic kidney disease (eGFR <30). Admitted to the hospital for major psychiatric illness. Major psychiatric illness not controlled by medication/treatment. Delirium etiology of drug overdose or alcohol withdrawal. Major surgery within the past five days. Known or suspected Covid-19 positive. Continuous feeding tube