Delirium Dementia - Differences and Similarities
Delirium and dementia are two separate diseases. When there is an acquired loss of intellectual functioning accompanied by symptoms like disorientation, mental confusion, forgetfulness, lack of coordination, irritability, lack of bowel control and bladder control, impaired judgment and impaired cognitive faculties in old age it is called dementia.
It takes a long period of time to develop and progresses slowly.
On the other hand delirium can develop quickly. Other kinds of medical problems can cause delirium. It can be cured or at least doctors can prevent or reverse the symptoms so that further mental damage is not caused.
Dementia is more or less incurable and is caused by depression, thyroid disease, vitamin B12 deficiency, medicine reactions, and alcohol abuse on a long term basis, strokes and Alzheimer?s disease.
Differences between Delirium and Dementia
The onset of delirium is acute while that of dementia is insidious.
Dementia is stable while delirium will fluctuate and the intensity or duration won't remain the same during the period of affliction.
Delirium can disappear in a few hours or weeks depending on the nature of circumstances. But a person can suffer from dementia for months on end to year after year.
In delirium attention span will fluctuate heavily whereas in dementia attention span will be lower than normal and the individual will face difficulty in concentration.
A person suffering from delirium will often hallucinate or be subjected to delusions, at times paranoia while an individual suffering from dementia will remain normal.
When it comes to sleeping patterns, a person in delirium will have his sleep disrupted while demented people have fragmented sleep.
More delirium dementia dissimilarities
Dementia is caused by atherosclerosis/anemia/alcoholism, infections, trauma, neurological causes, nutritional factors, visual/auditory or environmental factors, endocrine or metabolic disorders and emotional illness like schizophrenia.
Delirium is caused by stroke, metabolic failure, under nutrition, ictal states, retention of feces or urine, low oxygen and heightened emotion like agitated depression or mania.