Chapter 42 Confusion and dementia Flashcards
Cognitive function
Involves memory, thinking, reasoning, ability to understand, judgment, and behavior
Confusion
a state of being disoriented to person, time, place, situation or identity
Delirium
A state of sudden, severe confusion and rapid changes in brain function
Acute confusion
Delusion
a false belief
Dementia
loss of cognitive function that interferes with daily life and activities
Elopement
When a patient or resident leaves the agency without staff knowledge
Hallucination
seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, or tasting something that is not real
Paranoia
a disorder of the mind, false beliefs and suspicion, about a person and situation
Sundowning
signs, symptoms, and behaviors of dementia increase during hours of darkness
Changes in the brain and nervous system occurs:
with aging and desease
Nervous system changes from aging:
- nerve cells are lost
- nerve conduction slows
- reflexes, responses and reaction times are slower
- vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch decrease
- sensitivity to pain decrease
- blood flow to the brain is reduced
- sleep patterns change
- memory is shorter, forgetfulness occurs
-dizziness can occur
Delirium occurs suddenly:
usually temporally
causes include:
-infection, drugs, illness, surgery, injury
treatment is aimed at cause
Is dementia hereditary?
Yeah it is
Early warning signs of dementia:
- Recent memory loss that affects job skills
- Problems with common tasks
- Problems with language; forgetting simple words
- Getting lost in familiar places
- Misplacing things and putting things in odd places
- Personality changes
- Poor or decreased judgment
- Loss of interest in life
Types of permanent dementia:
- Alzheimer’s disease (most common)
- vascular dementia (stroke or other blood vessel problems damage vessels that supply blood to the brain)
- Lewy body dementia (abnormal protein deposits in the brain, lewy bodies affect chemicals in brain)
-Fronto-temporal disorders (nerve cells in certain areas of the brain [front and sides] break down) - Mixed dementia (2 or more types of dementia occur together)