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Delirium can be confused with multiple psychiatric disorders or chronic organic brain syndromes because of many overlapping signs and symptoms in common with dementia, depression, psychosis, etc. [4] [5] Delirium may occur in persons with existing mental illness, baseline intellectual disability, or dementia, entirely unrelated to any of these ...
Sundowning, or sundown syndrome, [1] is a neurological phenomenon wherein people with delirium or some form of dementia experience increased confusion and restlessness beginning in the late afternoon and early evening.
“Similar symptoms can occasionally be seen in older adults without dementia, particularly when they are ill or experiencing delirium.” How To Distinguish Sundowning From Typical Aging
It is also a diagnosis which can be acquired during hospital stays, typically by elderly patients or those with risk factors of delirium. While it is a common diagnosis, delirium can increase the risk of a longer hospital stay and the risk of complications throughout the hospital stay. [9] [10]
Some mental illnesses, including depression and psychosis, may produce symptoms that must be differentiated from both delirium and dementia. [100] These are differently diagnosed as pseudodementias , and any dementia evaluation needs to include a depression screening such as the Neuropsychiatric Inventory or the Geriatric Depression Scale .
Dementia and delirium are the cause of the confusion, orientation, cognition or alertness impairment. [11] Therefore, these symptoms require more attention because hallucinations, delusions, amnesia, and personality changes are the result. These effects of the dementia and delirium are not joined with the changes of sensory or perception abilities.
Some elderly people may find it hard to describe their symptoms in words, especially if the disease is causing confusion, or if they have cognitive impairment. Delirium in the elderly may be caused by a minor problem such as constipation or by something as serious and life-threatening as a heart attack. Many of these problems are treatable, if ...
Delirium is a condition that has hyperactive and hypoactive stages. In the hypoactive stages, elderly patients can just seem like they are sleeping or irritable. [15] Hospital staff often overlook these symptoms which leads to decreased cognitive ability and PTSD from the hospital environment. [16] The issue here is that the elderly often lack ...