This issue of Palliative and Supportive Care, Volume 19, no.3, is a special issue which highlights a number of articles focusing on "delirium in the supportive and palliative care setting." Since the founding of Palliative and Supportive Care as a journal, the focus of the journal has been of the psychiatric, psycho-social, existential, and spiritual aspects of palliative care. Delirium is the most common neuropsychiatric syndrome encountered in the palliative care setting, and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, so it is quite consistent with the journal's mission to publish a special issue containing five significant articles on delirium. It is a particular delight for Dr. Soenke Boettger and I to be writing this introductory editorial together for a variety of reasons. On a personal note, Dr. Boettger did his Clinical Fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry/Psycho-oncology with us at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center more than 15 years ago. I had the pleasure of not only being Dr. Boettger's Fellowship Training Director, but also his primary supervisor. During this fellowship, Soenke and I embarked on a series of studies on delirium, most of which have been published in Palliative and Supportive Care. As Dr. Boettger established his own Psychosomatic Medicine program in Zurich, he and his team have continued to conduct important research on delirium, and their productivity is reflected in three delirium research articles in this special issue. Their group has contributed three papers that characterize the prevalence of delirium in the palliative care setting, as well as delirium-related morbidity and mortality.
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