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Treatment of delirium requires identifying and managing the underlying causes, managing delirium symptoms, and reducing the risk of complications. [6] In some cases, temporary or symptomatic treatments are used to comfort the person or to facilitate other care (e.g., preventing people from pulling out a breathing tube).
The Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) is a diagnostic tool developed to allow physicians and nurses to identify delirium in the healthcare setting. [1] It was designed to be brief (less than 5 minutes to perform) and based on criteria from the third edition-revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R).
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 ...
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.
Substance-induced delirium is a type of delirium caused mostly by Anticholinergic drugs and medications. This type of delirium is separate from the delirium in elderly and older people above 65 years of age, and is characterized by shorter duration (usually several hours), and the symptoms are highly influenced by the type of drug and amount consumed.
In hospitals, the elderly face the very real problem of ageism. For example, doctors and nurses often mistake symptoms of delirium for normal elderly behavior. 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]
Bell's mania, also known as delirious mania, refers to an acute neurobehavioral syndrome. [1] This is usually characterized by an expeditious onset of delirium, mania, psychosis, followed by grandiosity, emotional lability, altered consciousness, hyperthermia, and in extreme cases, death. [1]
Antipsychotics are generally a first-line treatment for delirium; however, when delirium is caused by alcohol or sedative hypnotic withdrawal, benzodiazepines are a first-line treatment. [ 78 ] There is some evidence that low doses of benzodiazepines reduce adverse effects of electroconvulsive therapy .