- 3 Main causes and treatments for mental confusion in the elderly
- 1. Severe dehydration
- 2. Dementia
- 3. Stroke
- How to identify the mental confusion of the elderly
Mental confusion is the inability to think clearly making an elderly person, for example, use a fork to eat soup, wear winter clothes in summer or even demonstrate difficulty in understanding simple orders. This type of confusion can arise slowly with the development of dementia such as Alzheimer's, for example.
In these cases, treatment with medication and psychological therapy delays the worsening of the disease and mental confusion. And to learn how to live well with this person, see some tips that can help in: What to do to live better with the elderly who is mentally confused.
However, the elderly person may be suddenly confused when he has hypoglycemia or even if he fell and hit his head and, in these cases, the mental confusion that can arise, is usually reversible and it is necessary to go immediately to the emergency room to be medicated and / or stay under observation.
3 Main causes and treatments for mental confusion in the elderly
1. Severe dehydration
To treat dehydration, which usually leads to mental confusion in the elderly, and also to avoid problems such as malfunctioning of the heart and kidneys, it is important to take him to the hospital to receive serum through the vein and replace water and minerals. Know how to identify dehydration before it becomes serious in: Dehydration symptoms.
To ensure that the elderly is not dehydrated, water should be offered several times a day because in general he does not feel thirsty, but the lack of water leads to the malfunction of brain cells, because it increases the amount of toxic substances in the blood causing mental confusion.
2. Dementia
The treatment of mental confusion typical of diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's involves drugs prescribed by the psychiatrist, such as Donepezil or Memantine so that the symptoms of the disease do not get worse as quickly.
Dementia has no cure, making the elderly person, over time, less able to understand and increasingly dependent on his family. To learn more about how you should treat the patient with dementia read: How to care for the patient with Alzheimer's.
3. Stroke
Mental confusion in the case of stroke does not allow the affected region to function properly, causing mental confusion. Therefore, in case of suspected stroke, take the patient to be treated at the hospital.
If you have suffered a stroke, in addition to mental confusion, the elderly may lose strength in their arms and legs, and have difficulty speaking. Find out what are the main signs and symptoms of stroke to help the patient as soon as possible at: First aid for stroke.
Other very common causes that can cause mental confusion in the elderly are when urinary tract infection, hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia occurs or due to respiratory problems, such as respiratory failure. For this reason, it is important to keep regular consultations with the geriatrician, in order to identify and treat any disease that may arise due to old age, so that the elderly can live with a higher quality of life for as long as possible.
How to identify the mental confusion of the elderly
To make sure that the elderly person is mentally confused, the following information can be observed:
- Cannot mention the day of the week, date, season or even recognize people or their name or profession; Being very agitated or very still, moving their arms and legs uncontrollably or not responding to stimuli, such as calling by name or do not react to the touch; do not comply with small orders, such as going shopping or even raising your arm; wearing inappropriate clothing at the temperature, wearing very hot clothes or being able to go out without clothes, besides being able to walk dirty; not being able to have a contextualized conversation or saying very short sentences and very slowly; having difficulty performing everyday tasks, such as not knowing how to return home or eating food without preparing food; forgetting the conversations, situations and tasks you have to do, repeating -as, how to take the medication twice at the same time; behave inappropriately, such as spitting on the floor, burping at the table or shouting, and not being able to breathe ruin objects in the right place, for example; become aggressive, hurting yourself or hurting others.
In the case of the elderly presenting some of these signs it is important to go to the doctor to identify the cause of mental confusion and start the most correct treatment so as not to aggravate the problem. In addition, the more signs the elderly person has, the greater the degree of confusion and the more complex the treatment.
