Organic Disorders Flashcards
What is an organic mental disorder?
Characterised by demonstrable organic brain damage or mental disorder arising in the context of demonstrable physical disease
What are the common features of an organic mental disorder?
Cognitive impairment (Disorientation, impaired attention/concentration, memory, language, judgement, insight) Behavioural impairment (agitation, aggression, slowing, psychomotor retardation, abnormal social conduct) Mood changes (low mood, anxiety, mania) Psychotic features (hallucinations, delusions)
What are some acute/subacute organic mental disorders?
Delirium
Organice mood disorder
Organic psychotic disorder
What are the chronic mental disorders?
Dementia
Amnesia syndrome
Organic personality disorder
What is delirium?
Transient organic mental syndrome
of acute or subacute onset which
is characterised by
global cognitive impairment
What are the presenting features of delirium?
Impaired attention/concentration
Anterograde memory impairment
Disorientation in time, place or person
Fluctuating levels of arousal (often nocturnal exacerbations)
Disordered sleep/wake cycle
Increased/decreased psychomotor activity
Disorganised thinking as indicated by rambling, irrelevant or incoherent speech
Perceptual distortions, leading to misidentification, illusions, and hallucinations
Changes in mood such as anxiety, depression and lability
What are the causes of delirium?
Infections Medications Alcohol/drug withdrawal Drug abuse Metabolic Vitamin deficiencies Endocrinopathies Neurological causes Toxins/industrial exposures SLE Cerebral vasculitis Paraneoplastic syndromes
What is dementia?
A syndrome which characterised by global cognitive impairment which is chronic in nature. The underlying brain pathology is variable and usually but not always progressive.
What are the different types of dementia?
Alzheimer Vascular Lewy body Fronto-temporal Due to other brain disorders (Huntington’s chorea, head injury, Parkinson’s disease)
What are the causes of amnesic syndrome that lead to hippocampal damage?
Herpes simplex virus encephalitis Anoxia Surgical removal of temporal lobes Bilateral posterior cerebral artery occlusion Closed head injury Early Alzheimer’s disease
What are the causes of amnesic syndrome that lead to diencephalic damage?
Korsakoff’s syndrome (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)
3rd ventricle tumours and cysts
Bilateral thalamic infarction
Post subarachnoid haemorrhage, especially from anterior communicating artery aneurysms
What is amnesic syndrome?
Preserved global intellectual abilities Anterograde amnesia Retrograde amnesia (temporal gradient) Preserved registration/working memory (e.g. digit span) Preserved procedural (implicit) memory
