Delirium

Delirium – a severe confusion, disturbance in time, place, and self-orientation. It starts suddenly, symptoms are of a fluctuating course, behavior changes, previous cognitive functions are disrupted. Delirium more often occurs in elderly people. The person can become very agitated or drowsy, sleep cycle changes, hallucinations may occur. Delirium is not a disease, but a symptom caused by other reasons – medications (sedatives, narcotic analgesics), worsening conditions (for example, with fever, urinary tract infection, pneumonia) or sudden onset of brain damage (for example, a stroke).

Source | Author Doctor Nikas Samuolis, reviewed by Prof. Virginijus Šapoka | Vilnius University | Faculty of Medicine | Head of the Department of Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Oncology