Social Psychiatry, Vol. 44 No. 2, 2016.
Review article
Delirium superimposed on dementia Σ clinical picture and recommendations for treatment
Dijana Lucijanić
; Ivan Barbot Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Popovača
Marija Kušan Jukić
; 2Andrija Štampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Ninoslav Mimica
; University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, University of Zagreb, Medical School, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article reviews the recent literature about delirium superimposed on dementia, including current
knowledge about pathophysiology and the discussion on current recommendations that are used in
diagnosing and treating delirium. Delirium is a syndrome occurring in all age groups at different hospital
wards, and is most common in the intensive care units. In psychiatry, it is most relevant to older patients
with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia. Always intriguing, traddling the borders of somatic medicine,
neurology and psychiatry, delirium is a phenomenon occurring abruptly, with a dramatic clinical picture, and
committing us to quick reaction, recognition and treatment at the hospital ward. In this article, because of
the broadness of the topic, we will focus on diagnosis and treatment of delirium within geriatric psychiatric
patients suffering from dementia.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
162826
URI
Publication date:
3.6.2016.
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