Delirium
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Delirium
Psychological disorders
Mood disorders
Major depressive disorder
Suicide
Bipolar disorder
Seasonal affective disorder
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
Anxiety disorders
Generalized anxiety disorder
Social anxiety disorder
Panic disorder
Agoraphobia
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Psychotic disorders
Schizoaffective disorder
Schizophreniform disorder
Delusional disorder
Schizophrenia
Cognitive and dissociative disorders
Delirium
Amnesia
Dissociative disorders
Eating disorders
Anorexia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa
Personality disorders
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Somatoform and factitious disorders
Somatic symptom disorder
Factitious disorder
Substance use disorders and drugs of abuse
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Sleep disorders
Bruxism
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Narcolepsy (NORD)
Sexual dysfunction disorders
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Pediatric disorders
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Enuresis
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Psychiatric emergencies
Suicide
Serotonin syndrome
Neuroleptic malignant syndrome
Psychological disorders review
Mood disorders: Pathology review
Amnesia, dissociative disorders and delirium: Pathology review
Personality disorders: Pathology review
Eating disorders: Pathology review
Psychological sleep disorders: Pathology review
Psychiatric emergencies: Pathology review
Drug misuse, intoxication and withdrawal: Hallucinogens: Pathology review
Malingering, factitious disorders and somatoform disorders: Pathology review
Anxiety disorders, phobias and stress-related disorders: Pathology Review
Trauma- and stress-related disorders: Pathology review
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Pathology review
Drug misuse, intoxication and withdrawal: Stimulants: Pathology review
Drug misuse, intoxication and withdrawal: Alcohol: Pathology review
Developmental and learning disorders: Pathology review
Childhood and early-onset psychological disorders: Pathology review
Assessments
Delirium
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Delirium
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First Aid
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Anticholinergic drugs
delirium with p. 581
Delirium p. 581
barbiturate withdrawal p. 594
diabetic ketoacidosis p. 357
PCP p. 595
thyroid storm p. 348
Geriatric patients
drug-related delirium in p. 581
Hallucinations p. 582
delirium p. 581
Haloperidol p. 597
delirium p. 581
Hemorrhage
delirium caused by p. 581
Sleep problems
delirium and p. 581
Substance abuse
delirium with p. 581
Urinary retention
delirium p. 581
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Transcript
Content Reviewers
Rishi Desai, MD, MPHContributors
Tanner Marshall, MS
Delirium is a common and very serious neuropsychiatric syndrome.
Typically it affects older patients with multiple medical problems, in fact up to half of all elderly patients in the hospital will have an episode of delirium at some point, but being said it can affect anyone - even children, even though that’s much less common.
So, what is delirium exactly? Well let’s look at a quick example. Let’s say there is an elderly man with diabetes and heart disease, who comes into the hospital with pneumonia.
He might be slowly recovering, even about to go home, and then one evening things change all of the sudden. He might get really hyperactive, and by that I mean that he may get agitated or aggressive with the staff, mumble or say things incoherently, and have disorganized thoughts or even delusions, perhaps talking about things that haven’t happened or happened years ago. He might even hear or see things like hallucinations, and not know where he is or what he’s doing there.
We would call this an episode of delirium, and it can be really scary for him or someone who is taking care of him, especially the first time it happens because it can come out of the blue.
These are the symptoms of what we call hyperactive delirium.
But there’s also hypoactive delirium which is like the flip side of the coin.
As an example, you might have a woman with a history of chronic constipation who has recently come out of back surgery.
If she has hypoactive delirium she might feel suddenly sluggish and drowsy, less reactive and sullen, and might look withdrawn, perhaps because she’s scared of having hallucinations.
These symptoms of both hyperactive and hypoactive delirium can start pretty suddenly and can happen off and on over the course of a few hours to a few days, with some patients having what they call mix state delirium where they are sometimes having hyperactive symptoms and sometimes having hypoactive symptoms.
As you might guess, delirium symptoms can be really tiresome for a patient and can make them sleepy during the day, and keep them up at night - all of which causes massive disruption to a person’s life and to the lives of their friends and family.
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