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The individual findings that cause a clinician to refer to a person as having encephalopathy include intellectual disability, irritability, agitation, delirium, confusion, somnolence, stupor, coma and psychosis. As such, describing a person as having a clinical picture of encephalopathy is not a very specific description. [citation needed]
A third entity, encephalopathy , denotes a gray zone between delirium and dementia. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has broken up the diagnoses that once fell under the diagnostic category organic mental disorder into three categories: delirium, dementia, and amnestic. [4]
Delirium (formerly acute confusional state, an ambiguous term that is now discouraged) [1] is a specific state of acute confusion attributable to the direct physiological consequence of a medical condition, effects of a psychoactive substance, or multiple causes, which usually develops over the course of hours to days.
Delirium is a type of neurocognitive disorder that develops rapidly over a short period of time. Delirium may be described using many other terms, including: encephalopathy, altered mental status, altered level of consciousness, acute mental status change, and brain failure.
The signs and symptoms of alcohol-related dementia are essentially the same as the symptoms present in other types of dementia, making alcohol-related dementia difficult to diagnose. There are very few qualitative differences between alcohol dementia and Alzheimer's disease and it is therefore difficult to distinguish between the two. [6]
Delirium tremens was also given an alternate medical definition since at least the 1840s, being known as mania a potu, which translates to 'mania from drink'. [28] The Belgian beer "Delirium Tremens," introduced in 1988, is a direct reference and also uses a pink elephant as its logo to highlight one of the symptoms of delirium tremens. [29] [30]
Hypertensive encephalopathy (HE) is general brain dysfunction due to significantly high blood pressure. [3] Symptoms may include headache, vomiting, trouble with balance, and confusion. [1] Onset is generally sudden. [1] Complications can include seizures, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, and bleeding in the back of the eye. [1] [3]
Alcoholic hallucinosis is a much less serious diagnosis than delirium tremens. Delirium tremens (DTs) do not appear suddenly, unlike alcoholic hallucinosis. DTs also take approximately 48 to 72 hours to appear after the heavy drinking stops. A tremor develops in the hands and can also affect the head and body.