Delirium is derived from the Latin word ‘lira’. This means quarry, tracks. Delirium can be seen as derailment. Delirium is also called delirium. Delirium is most common in people who are in hospital. Between 10% and 30% of patients in a hospital experience delirium. That is a high number of patients. But what exactly is delirium, and how can it arise? How do you deal with someone who has delirium? Delirium is a cognitive disorder that suddenly causes extreme confusion, causing the person concerned to have difficulty concentrating and being unable to communicate clearly and coherently. This is temporary and can be caused by various somatic (physical) conditions. The confusion decreases as soon as the physical condition improves. The disorder develops over a short period of time (hours/days) and usually lasts no longer than a week, rarely lasting more than a month. If the underlying cause is not resolved and therefore persists or worsens, it can lead to a coma or death.
Causes
Delirium can be caused by the following somatic conditions:
- Head trauma
- Disturbed balance between fluid and electrolytes
- Metabolic disorders such as hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
- Deficiency of vitamin B1 (thiamine)
- Brain damage
- Seizures (epilepsy)
- After exposure to toxic substances
- As a side effect of certain medications
- After an overdose of alcohol or drugs
- After surgery
Various diseases can also cause delirium. Diseases that affect the central nervous system such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and the condition viral encephalitis (a form of brain infection). Furthermore, liver and kidney diseases can also cause delirium.
The most common cause of delirium is abrupt withdrawal from psychoactive drugs, especially alcohol. Chronic alcoholics who stop drinking abruptly may enter a form of delirium called delirium tremens. During an acute episode of delirium tremens, the victim experiences terrifying hallucinations. Delirium tremens can last a week or longer and is best treated in hospital with benzodiozepines.
Symptoms
People with delirium have difficulty filtering out irrelevant stimuli or focusing their attention on a new task. Perceptual disturbances may also occur, such as incorrect interpretation of sensory stimuli or illusions. This leads to the following symptoms:
- During a conversation, not everything seems to get through. The victim occasionally drifts off and cannot pay attention.
- The victim’s memory works less well. He/she often forgets things that were recently told to him/her.
- He/she is restless and can therefore get out of bed, for example.
- The victim may become anxious and react aggressively to people around him or her due to fear.
- The victim may hallucinate. This way he/she can see things that are not there in reality. Relatives may also not be recognized or mistaken for someone else.
- The movements can slow down considerably and sometimes there are periods when staying awake is almost impossible.
How to deal with someone who has delirium
Dealing with someone who has delirium is difficult. Often the patient is already in the hospital, and therefore feels confused and uncomfortable. The following tips are intended to help you deal with people with delirium:
- Speak in short, clear sentences.
- Visiting someone with delirium is important. Just make sure there aren’t too many people passing by.
- Ask simple questions.
- Try not to go along with the delusions, hallucinations and/or illusions. Don’t contradict them either. Try to make it clear that you do not experience them. If this has no effect, try not to argue about it.
- Don’t try to talk all the time; the presence of people is often enough.
