Organic mental disorders Flashcards
What are organic mental disorders?
A group of acquired disorders (differentiation from learning disability) which have recognised organic explanation
What can cause organic mental disorders?
- Primary brain disorder / impairment such as a tumour
- Secondary brain disorder such as an endocrine disorder or substance misuse
What are the common cognitive features of organic mental disorder?
- Disorentation
- Impaired attention / concentration
- Impaired memory
- Launguage difficulties
- Issues with judgement
- Loss of insight
What are the common behavioural abnormalities of organic mental disorders?
- Agitation
- Psychomotor retardardation
- Abnormal social conduct
What are the common mood changes of organic mental disorders?
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Elated
What are the common psychotic features of organic mental disorders?
- Hallucinations
- Delusions (often persecutory)
Give examples of acute/subacute organic mental disorders
- Delerium (acute confusional state)
- Organic mood disorder
- Organic psychotic disorder
Give examples of chronic organic mental disorders
- Dementia
- Amnesic syndrome
- Organic personality change
Presenting features of delerium
- Impairment of consciousness and attention
- Global disturbance of cognition
- Psychomotor disturbances
- Disturbance of sleep-wake cycle
- Emotional disturbance
Give some causes of dementia
- Infection
- Medications
- Alcohol/drug withdrawal
- Drug abuse
- Vitamin deficiencies
- Neurological causes
Treatent of delerium
- Treat underlying cause
- Environmental and supportive measures
- Education of relatives, medical and nursing staff
- Make environment safe
- Optimise stimulation
- Orientation
- Correct factors contributing to delirium:
- Dehydration
- Constipation
- Multiple medications
- Pain
- Poor nutrition
- Sensory impairment
What are the features of amnesic syndrome?
- impairment of recent and remote memory
- immediate recall preserved
- new learning reduced
- anterograde amnesia
- retrograde amnesia
- disorientation in time
- confabulation
- perception and other cognitive functions preserved
Area damaged in amnesic syndrome
- hypothalamic-diencephalic system
- hippocampal region
What causes of hippocampal damage can lead to amnesic syndrome?
- Herpes simplex virus encephalitis
- Anoxia
- Surgical removal of temporal lobes
- Bilateral posterior cerebral artery occlusion
- Closed head injury
- Early Alzheimer’s disease
What causes of diencephalic damage can lead to amnesic syndrome?
- Korsakoff’s syndrome (alcoholic and non-alcoholic)
- 3rd ventricle tumours and cysts
- Bilateral thalamic infarction
- Post subarachnoid haemorrhage
