pCAM-ICU: Pediatric Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU
2011pCAM-ICU is a developmentally adapted CAM-family assessment for delirium in critically ill school-age children.
Classification
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Tool and original sources
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Original and selected diagnostic-accuracy papers
- Original paperSmith HA, Boyd J, Fuchs DC, Melvin K, Berry P, Shintani A, et al. Diagnosing delirium in critically ill children: Validity and reliability of the Pediatric Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit. Critical care medicine. 2011;39(1):150-7. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0b013e3181feb489. PMID: 20959783.
This paper reports the original validation of pCAM-ICU. It reported sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 99% against an independent DSM-IV-TR clinical assessment.
- Systematic review of diagnostic accuracyDaoud A, Duff JP, Joffe AR, Alberta Sepsis Network. Diagnostic accuracy of delirium diagnosis in pediatric intensive care: a systematic review. Critical care (London, England). 2014;18(5):489. doi: 10.1186/s13054-014-0489-x. PMID: 25672219.
This systematic review synthesised diagnostic-accuracy evidence for pCAM-ICU. Tool-specific pCAM-ICU result: sensitivity 78% and specificity 98% in 68 children.
Article PDF: CC BY. This licence applies to the article PDF and does not grant rights to reproduce the tool.
- Selected diagnostic-accuracy studyLuetz A, Gensel D, Müller J, Weiss B, Martiny V, Heinz A, et al. Validity of Different Delirium Assessment Tools for Critically Ill Children: Covariates Matter. Critical care medicine. 2016;44(11):2060-2069. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0000000000001840. PMID: 27276343.
This diagnostic-accuracy study evaluated pCAM-ICU in tertiary-care paediatric ICU against a DSM-5 clinical assessment. It reported sensitivity of 76.9% and specificity of 98% in 64 critically ill children; 214 assessments.
At a glance
- Purpose
- Episodic assessment
- Population
- Paediatric
- Setting
- Intensive care
- Time
- ~2 min
- Items
- 4
- Score or threshold
- Developmentally adapted CAM-family classification; see the authorised materials.
Format: A four-feature, developmentally adapted CAM-family assessment for critically ill school-age children, reported at about two minutes. Tasks, prompts, thresholds and decision logic are not reproduced here.
Evidence
Reported sensitivity and specificity
Original/source study · 2011 — pmid:20959783
- Denominator
- 68 patients; 146 paired assessments
- Reference standard
- Child/adolescent psychiatrist DSM-IV-TR delirium assessment
Original validation: 68 children contributed 146 blinded paired assessment-days; 146 is not a patient count.
More evidence and citation details
- Full name
- Pediatric Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU
- Also known as
- pCAM-ICU, Pediatric CAM-ICU
- Related profiles
- sspCAM-ICU
- Evidence summary
- multi
- Diagnostic-accuracy studies
- 4
- Reference standard
- Child/adolescent psychiatrist DSM-IV-TR delirium assessment
- Citation
- Smith HA, Boyd J, Fuchs DC, Melvin K, Berry P, Shintani A, Eden SK, Terrell MK, Boswell T, Wolfram K, Sopfe J, Barr FE, Pandharipande PP, Ely EW Diagnosing delirium in critically ill children: Validity and reliability of the Pediatric Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit Critical care medicine. 2011;39(1):150-7. PMID 20959783
Copyright and reuse
- Version
- Use the current version supplied by CIBS
- Information checked
- 2026-07-19
Instrument-specific terms apply. See the access and copyright policy or send a correction.
Sources checked 2026-07-29. How profiles are prepared.