Compare and contrast delirium with brief psychotic disorder

Week 9 (Delirium and Brief Psychotic Disorder)

Delirium (acute confusional state) can be considered a syndrome involving disturbances in an individual’s cognition, attention, and consciousness. In some cases, it may also involve specific neurological deficits like emotional disturbance and impaired sleep-wake cycles. However, such features are not necessary for its diagnosis (Thakur et al. 2020). A brief psychotic disorder, on the other, is a sudden and, most importantly, short-term display in consideration of a patient’s psychotic behaviors. Examples, in this case, include hallucinations and delusions, which are most likely to occur when a person experiences stressful situations.

Logically, delirium as a disorder plays a major role in affecting psychiatry and medicine. It can be considered an acute organic syndrome due to a specific underlying condition. As a result, delirium is more likely to be defined clinically by disturbances in an individual’s consciousness level, cognitive functioning, and, most importantly, attention. Besides, it is considered a syndrome due to the constellation of symptoms and signs associated with, combined with different potential etiologies.

Brief psychotic disorders, on the other hand, involve a sudden onset of people’s psychotic behaviors. However, this onset tends to last less than one month. Besides, it may be followed by complete remission with possibilities of future relapses. As a result, the brief psychotic disorder is different from delirium by the duration of the psychosis. Most people tend to recover from the disorder after one month fully. Although it may be rare, a brief psychotic disorder can affect people more than once (Minichino et al. 2019). Unlike brief psychotic disorder, it is common for some people with delirium to never return to their normal or former cognitive and fontal capacity. Besides, it can also reoccur after the first infections, thus making delirium different from a brief psychotic disorder.                     

References

Minichino, A., Rutigliano, G., Merlino, S., Davies, C., Oliver, D., De Micheli, A., … & Fusar-Poli, P. (2019). Unmet needs in patients with brief psychotic disorders: too ill for clinical high risk services and not ill enough for first episode services. European Psychiatry, 57, 26-32.

Thakur, D., Agarwal, K., Gupta, A., & Gupta, R. (2020). Clinical profile of acute confusional state in elderly patients in a tertiary hospital in western Rajasthan. Journal of Geriatric Mental Health, 7(2), 86.