CRACKCast E104 – Delirium and Dementia

Dementia: Cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one or more cognitive domains: Complex attention, executive function, learning and memory, language, perceptual motor function, or social cognition. The disorder has an insidious onset and gradual progression.

Delirium vs. Dementia: Different side on the same coin

Mainly, dementia has a gradual onset, whereas delirium has a more abrupt and acute onset. Attention and orientation are usually impaired in delirium, but generally preserved in dementia in earlier stage.

Dementia and the ER—A Toxic Combination

Perhaps we need to reconsider whether the ER is an appropriate site of care for patients with dementia. The expansion of house-call practices that bring both providers and technology to the patient, rather than the patient to the provider, may be an alternative to ER care.

ED Dementia Care Training

It is important to be familiar with the different types of dementia. The type of dementia impacts on its presentation, risk factors and so treatment of the condition.

Stop that Train! I Want to Get Off: Emergency Care for Patients with Advanced Dementia

When these patients arrive in the emergency department (ED), the default pathway is to prioritize disease-directed therapies (e.g., intravenous fluid and antibiotics) over attention to the larger picture of AD. The physiologic disturbances receive intense focus and the AD is seemingly forgotten

When ICU Delirium Leads To Symptoms Of Dementia After Discharge

Doctors have gradually come to realize that people who survive a serious brush with death in the intensive care unit are likely to develop potentially serious problems with their memory and thinking processes. This dementia, a side effect of intensive medical care, can be permanent. And it affects as many as half of all people who are rushed to the ICU after a medical emergency.

“Dementia” in the emergency department: can you do anything about it?

In contrast, patients suffering from dementia are more likely to have predominantly impairments in memory and cognitive function, as opposed to alterations in consciousness and perception. For patients with delirium, their symptoms present much more acutely, over days to weeks, as opposed to the symptoms of dementia, which occur over months and years.