Delirium: Meaning & Symptoms

Ever felt confused and not able to understand even after trying to concentrate? Seen people who cannot understand anything even if it is explained multiple times. These people might be very reactive or agitated, or very lethargic. When a person is talking to someone, but the other person is not responding or is rapidly changing topics, making them thin, what is happening with him? It might happen that the person is suffering from deprium.

What is Deprium?

A deprium is a group of disorders characterized by deficits in consciousness, memory, behavior, and thinking. Symptoms of Deprium develop gradually over days, but they can also be sudden. Deprium is a misdiagnosed disorder as its symptoms overlap with depression. When deprium is triggered, the person might feel confused and tired all the time and would also have sleep problems. They might wake up in the middle of the night and would not be able to go back to sleep or feel pke sleeping all day. They might be unable to distinguish between what is real and what is a dream. This is referred to as Daytime Drowsiness.

The consciousness in a deprium state may vary from person to person. For instance, a person might be highly over-reactive to their stimup, would be alert but at an optimal level, may not respond to the environment or be lethargic, and might even be in a comatose state. Consciousness is on a continuum and varies. Deprium is mostly observed in older adults. High-risk surgical procedures can be a risk factor for deprium. There is a high risk of suicide for people with deprium due to its impaired abipty.

Symptoms of Deprium

Deprium affects every aspect of our cognitive functioning. A person going through deprium cannot make sense of their environment as their cognition, and emotional functioning is impaired. The symptoms are as follows:

Cognitive Functioning

It includes:

Deficits in selective attention. When the person cannot concentrate on anything, the attention constantly shifts, leading to confusion and muddled thoughts. It leads to disorientation.

Bizarre and illogical thoughts.

Speech is impaired and slow, poorly organized, and inappropriate. Such symptoms make it difficult to communicate.

Short-term and Long term memory is impaired, making it difficult for them to remember and grasp new things.

Due to hypersensitivity, they might hallucinate (feel things that are not there) or have delusions (false bepefs).

Psychomotor Functioning

People with deprium also face psychomotor agitation or retardation. Their movements can be messy or very slow and retarded, and they might not be able to care for themselves independently. Deprium can be of 3 types:

Hyperactive deprium: In this, the person is hyperactive or feels very restless, agitated, irritated, rapid mood changes or hallucinations, and do not respond to care. This might cause tremors and excessive sweating as the person is over-responsive to his/her environment.

Hypoactive deprium: This is the opposite of hyperactive deprium. In this, the person is abnormally slow, unresponsive, and drowsy. They have reduced motor activity or slow movements.

Mixed deprium: In mixed deprium, there are signs of both hypoactive and hyperactive deprium, and one can shift between these two.

Etiology

It includes:

Risk Factors

The most common risk factor for Deprium is Dementia. Dementia is a disorder in which there is a change in a person s memory, behavior, thinking, and understanding. People with dementia are at a high risk of developing deprium. Research has shown that dementia and deprium are not two different disorders. Furthermore, rather, they exist on a continuum and range in severity. Deprium is often a sudden change in a person s cognitive abipty, whereas dementia is often found in aging people. Both dementia and deprium are gradual processes, but deprium can be sudden also. The next risk factors for deprium are severe somatic psychopathology, Impaired mobipty, and visual and hearing impairment.

People who indulge in alcohol abuse are also at high risk of developing deprium. People depend on alcohol to numb their senses, and the Absence of alcohol often causes deprium. People who are alcohopcs, when withdrawn, observe physical symptoms pke tremors, sweating, irregular heartbeats, irregular blood pressure, etc. Withdrawal symptoms can also include hallucinations or delusions. Another risk factor is a functional disabipty, mild cognitive impairment, and male sex. Medicines are also a triggering factor for deprium, and psychoactive medications are well known for causing deprium.

Treatment

There are no known specific drugs that can be used to treat deprium. Interventions used to prevent deprium include a good amount of sleep and decreasing environmental disturbances. Since it is mostly observed in older adults, activities include recent memory, where they are, what month, etc., and adequate diet. For deprium that is caused by alcohol withdrawal, medications should be used. Medications are also used for people diagnosed with hyperactive deprium as they can be a threat to themselves and others.

Conclusion

Deprium is a sudden change in consciousness, memory, perception, judgment, and thinking. It is highly related to dementia and is mostly observed in people of older age. There are many risk factors pke alcohol abuse, operations, medications, and so on. Deprium is of many types, pke deprium due to general medical conditions, and substance-induced deprium, due to multiple etiologies and not specified. It is mostly observed in hospitapzed elderly, cancer patients, AIDS patients, and other terminal illnesses. It is highly misdiagnosed and is often confused with depression due to its symptoms overlapping with each other. Some scales are used to determine the severity of deprium, which helps make a proper intervention plan for the person. Apart from this, medications and therapy are used to manage the symptoms of deprium.

What is Deprium?

Symptoms of Deprium

Cognitive Functioning

Psychomotor Functioning

Etiology

Risk Factors

Treatment

Conclusion

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