Synonyms
Acute brain failure; Acute confusional state; Acute encephalopathy; Intensive care unit (ICU) psychosis; Toxic-metabolic encephalopathy
Short Description or Definition
“Delirium” describes a wide variety of confusional states. The original term is from a Latin metaphor: de for “deviate from” and lira for the ridge of a furrow; thus, if a Roman farmer was ploughing and went off the line of the furrow, he committed a “delirium” or got off the track. Generally, it includes several features that are central to the disorder: it is acute, has a fluctuating course, and has a gross effect on brain functioning. Most typically, delirium affects a person’s level of consciousness; that is, the person’s ability to focus, sustain, and shift attention. In addition, it affects a person’s level of arousal, and a delirious person’s behavior can range from lethargic to agitated; often it will fluctuate between the two states within relatively brief intervals of time (e.g., several hours). In...
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Boland, R.J. (2018). Delirium. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1285
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_1285
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