Dementia Flashcards
Delirium Onset, Course, Duration
Onset:
Acute, typically abrupt/sudden
Course:
Fluctuating (e.g. worse at night and upon awakening)
Duration:
Hours to days/weeks
Delirium Attention, Consciousness, Speech,
Reversibility, other features
Attention:
Impaired-reduced ability to sustain/shift attention
Consciousness:
Fluctuating, reduced level of consciousness
Speech:
Can be incoherent, disorganized
Reversibility:
Usually
Other features:
- Hyperactive/hypoactive forms
- Sleep/wake and perceptual disturbances
Dementia Onset, Course, Duration
Onset:
Insidious/slow and often unrecognized; depends on the cause
Course:
Progressive
Duration:
Months to years
Dementia Attention, Consciousness, Speech,
Reversibility, other features
Attention:
Normal unless severe dementia
Consciousness:
Generally intact
Speech:
Ordered, may have aphasia
Reversibility:
Irreversible
Other features:
Symptoms may vary with pathologic subtype
Alzheimer’s Disease
- Most common
Symptoms
Early:
- Difficulty remembering recent conversations, names or events
- apathy and depression
Later:
- impaired communication
- poor judgment
- disorientation, confusion
- behavior changes
- difficulty speaking, swallowing
- difficulty walking
Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB)
Symptoms
more initial/early S/S than Alzheimer’s
- sleep disturbances
- well-formed visual hallucinations
- slowness
- gait imbalance
- parkinsonian movement features
Shared feature with Alzheimer’s
- memory loss
- thinking problems
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Mad cow disease–>transmitted to people
- Incurable and fatal neurodegenerative disease
- Take 5-8 years from initial exposure until S/S appear
S/S:
Rapidly fatal disorder that impairs:
- memory - coordination
causes behavior changes.
Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome
Cause:
- severe deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B-1)
- alcohol misuse.
S/S:
- severe memory problems
- thinking/ social skills–>unaffected
