Delirium

Acute confusional state- Acute brain syndrome

Delirium is most often caused by physical or mental illness and is usually temporary and reversible. Many disorders cause delirium, including conditions that deprive the brain of oxygen or other substances.

Symptoms

Delirium involves a quick change between mental states (for example, from lethargy to agitation and back to lethargy).

Symptoms include:

• Changes in alertness (usually more alert in the morning, less alert at night)
• Changes in feeling (sensation) and perception
• Changes in level of consciousness or awareness
• Changes in movement (for example, may be slow moving or hyperactive)
• Changes in sleep patterns, drowsiness
• Confusion (disorientation) about time or place
• Decrease in short-term memory and recall
  • Unable to remember events since delirium began (anterograde amnesia)
  • Unable to remember events before delirium (retrograde amnesia)
• Disrupted or wandering attention
  • Inability to think or behave with purpose
  • Problems concentrating
• Disorganized thinking
  • Speech that doesn't make sense (incoherent)
  • Inability to stop speech patterns or behaviors
• Emotional or personality changes
  • AngerAgitation
  • Anxiety
  • Apathy
  • Depression
  • Euphoria
  • Irritability
• Incontinence
• Movements triggered by changes in the nervous system (psychomotor restlessness)