Altered Mental Status and Delirium

Altered Mental Status and Delirium

Wilber S T; Ondrejka J E

Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America

2016

2016-08

Older patients who present to the emergency department frequently have acute or chronic alterations of their mental status, including their level of consciousness and cognition. Recognizing both acute and chronic changes in cognition are important for emergency physicians. Delirium is an acute change in attention, awareness, and cognition. Numerous life threatening conditions can cause delirium; therefore, prompt recognition and treatment are critical. The authors discuss an organized approach that can lead to a prompt diagnosis within the time constraints of the emergency department.

adults; Altered mental status; cognitive impairment; confusion assessment method; delirium; Dementia; Elderly; elderly-patients; Emergency Medicine; Emergency Medicine; emergency-department patients; haloperidol; intensive-care-unit; Length of Stay; Medical decision-making capacity; scale; screening tools

Journal Article

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