I went to the hospital for debilitating shoulder pain.
Came out 3 hours later with an xray that showed nothing wrong and a bottle of Ativan. Still no idea why they gave that to me. I didn't take any of the pills.
It's hard to pin it down to a single drug. Having had both my grandmother (80) and mother (60) in the ICU, and both got hallucinations without Ativan. It could be so many things:
* The aftermentioned lack of sound sleep
* Anesthesia
* Painkillers
In the case of my grandmother, hallucinations and incoherence lasted about three months after she was home. My mother's lasted about 2-3 weeks. It was scary. They both eventually recovered. But it is true that nobody in the hospital bats an eye when acute dementia-like symptoms are mentioned. "It's normal," they say.
Consider asking nurses to stop administering it after you do your own research.
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-6685/ativan-oral/details#...).