Dementia Delirium

Question 1

Course of illness in Dementia vs Delirium?

Answer 1

Dementia: insidious onset, over months - years. Less fluctuation in symptoms

Delirium: Sudden onset over hours-days. Fluctuates with lucid spells and worse at night

Question 2

5 domains of cognitive symptoms?

Answer 2

Speech
Language
Attention
Orientation
Memory

Question 3

Cognitive symptoms of Dementia?

Answer 3

Dysarthria
Anomia, aphasia
Normal/slow response
Normal orientation unless advanced
Poor recall, encoding, consolidation

Question 4

Cognitive symptoms of Delirium?

Answer 4

Mute/normal
Incoherent, illogical
Cannot focus / obvious attention shift
Disoriented to time, place and person
Difficulty encoding, a/w memory loss

Question 5

Compare mood in dementia vs delirium?

Answer 5

DEmentia: Depressed
Delirium: Usually dysphoric, typically labile, rarely manic

Question 6

Pychosis symptoms in delirium

Answer 6

1. Visual hallucinations 40-70%, involving distortions and illusions
2. Delusions 40-70%, usu transient, fragmented, persecutory

Question 7

Psychosis symptoms in dementia?

Answer 7

1. Hallucination uncommon
2. Lewy body dementia a/w visual hallucinations
3. Delusion of theft is common

Question 8

Common causes of late onset dementia?

Answer 8

Alzheimers
Vascular dementia
Lewy body dementia

Question 9

What race more susceptible to vascular dementia?

Answer 9

Chinese and malays