Confusion
August 20th, 2017
Overview
Ask About
- Time - day, date, month, year, season
- Place - floor, building, city, state, country
- Person - full name, date of birth, address
- Situation - why the patient is in hospital, who the prime minister is
Significance
- Orientation is a quick way of assessing patients for confusion.
Causes
- Delirium - stroke, infection, intoxication / withdrawal, metabolic, neoplastic, intra/post-ictal, sleep deprivation, severe pain, psychiatric
- Dementia - Alzheimer's, vascular dementia, lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia
- Intellectual disability
- Poor compliance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------