Observations placeholder
Hallucinations from common cold complications
Identifier
006953
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
There are three cases mentionned here which make the analysis more difficult to produce.
The wording is none too clear. Mood related symptoms do not really constitute delirium, nor does suicide, hallucinations do. Thus I have homed in on the pneumonia, which was a complication of a viral infection
A description of the experience
Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2013;157(21):A5910. [Atypical presentation of delirium: risk of misdiagnosis and undertreatment]. [Article in Dutch] Rutten S1, Schadé A. 1GGZ inGeest-VUmc, polikliniek Psychiatrie, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. s.rutten@vumc.nl
An atypical presentation of delirium increases the risk of misdiagnosis and undertreatment. Three cases are presented in this article.
- A 65-year-old woman, admitted for malnutrition, has significant mood-related symptoms that resemble depression.
- A 50-year-old male, admitted with an abscess, necrotizing fasciitis and sepsis, appears to be suicidal.
- A 61-year-old male, admitted with pneumonia, has auditory hallucinations.
All three patients turned out to have a delirium. The authors advise ruling out a delirium in all patients who have predisposing factors and who develop an acute psychiatric disorder while staying in the hospital, before considering other psychiatric diagnoses. Advice on how to improve the diagnostic process is given.
PMID: 23693007