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Delirium and Dementia: Diagnostic Criteria and Fatality Rates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Peter V. Rabins
Peter V. Rabins*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205
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Summary

Medically ill patients diagnosed at index admission as delirious, i.e., suffering cognitive decline and an altered state of consciousness, had higher fatality rates than demented, cognitively intact or depressed patients. At a one-year follow-up the death rate of those who had been delirious was still higher than that of demented patients. Delirious patients were more likely to have a diffusely slow EEG, tachycardia and hyperthermia and lower mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure. These results validate the distinction between delirium and dementia and the importance of alteration of consciousness as a defining characteristic of delirium.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 140 , Issue 2 , February 1982 , pp. 149 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1982 

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