Organic Disorders Flashcards
(25 cards)
How are functional psychiatric disorders differentiated from organic psychiatric disorders?
Functional psychiatric disorders - disturbance of the functioning of the brain
Organic psychiatric disorders - Organic brain damage or mental disorder arising in the context of demonstrable physical disease
What is the problem with differentiating functional from organic psychiatric disorders?
1 - Many psychiatric disorders have an organic basis (bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia)
2 - Many mental disorders present with a mixture of mental and physical symptoms/features (depression)
3 - Physical disorders can have an effect on psychological functioning
What are the categories of organic mental disorders?
What are other terms used to describe organic mental disorders?
1 - Organic brain syndrome
2 - Organic brain disease
3 - Symptomatic mental disorder
What are the common features of organic mental disorders?
1 - Cognitive Impairment
2 - Behavioural abnormalities
3 - Mood changes
4 - Psychotic features
What symptoms might a patient with cognitive impairment from organic mental disorder present with?
1 - Disorientation
2 - Impaired attention
3 - Memory (anterograde +- retrograde amnesia)
4 - Problems with judgement
5 - Lack of insight
What symptoms might a patient with behavioural abnormalities from organic mental disorder present with?
1 - Agitation & aggression
2 - Psychomotor retardation (slowing down - movements, speech, thoughts etc.)
3 - Abnormal social conduct
What symptoms might a patient with mood changes from organic mental disorder present with?
1 - Low mood
2 - Anxiety
3 - Mania
What symptoms might a patient with psychotic features from organic mental disorder present with?
1 - Hallucinations (visual most common)
2 - Delusions (often persecutory)
How can organic mental disorders be categorised?
1 - Acute/subacute
2 - Chronic
Give examples of organic mental disorders that can present acutely?
1 - Delirium
2 - Organic mood disorder
3 - Organic psychotic disorder
Give examples of organic mental disorders that can present chronically?
1 - Dementia
2 - Amnesic syndrome
3 - Organic personality change
What is the definition of delirium?
Transient organic mental syndrome of acute or subacute onset which is characterized by global cognitive impairment
What are some of the presenting features of someone with delirium?
1 - Impaired attention/concentration
2 - Anterograde memory impairment
3 - Disorientation in time, place or person
4 - Changes in level of arousal (worse at night)
5 - Disordered sleep/wake cycle
6 - Disorganised thinking (rambling or irrelevant speech)
What are some of the causes of delirium?
1 - Infections
2 - Medications
3 - Alcohol/drug withdrawal
4 - Drug abuse
5 - Metabolic
What are some of the infective causes of delirium?
UTI’s
Respiratory infections (Pneumonia)
What medications can cause delirium?
Anticholinergics
Dopaminergic
Opioids
Steroids
What are some of the metabolic causes of delirium?
1 - Dehydration (electrolyte imbalance)
2 - Malnutrition
3 - Anaemia
4 - Hypoxia
5 - Hypercapnoea
What is the definition of dementia?
A syndrome characterised by global cognitive impairment which is chronic in nature
The responsible brain pathology is usually progrssive
List the different types of dementia?
1 - Alzheimers
2 - Vascular
3 - Lewy-body
4 - Fronto-temporal
5 - Other brain disorders (parkinsons, head injury, huntingtons chorea)
What are the features of anterograde amnesia?
- Anterograde & retrograde amnesia
Preserved:
- Intellectual abilities
- Working memory
- Procedural memory
What are the broad categories of the causes of amnesic syndrome?
1) Hippocampal damage
2) Diencephalic damage
What can cause hippocampal damage, leading to amnesia?
Herpres-simplex virus encephalitis
Early alzheimers disease
Anoxia
What are some of examples of conditions that can result in diencephalic damage leading to amnesia?
1 - Korsakoff’s syndrome (Thiamine (Vit B1) deficiency)
2 - Tumours of 3rd ventricle
3 - Infarction of Thalamus
