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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Mnemonic for Delirium

Delirium is an important medical symptom and may pointing to an immediate medical emergency if not recognised early. Here is mnemonic to remember the causes of delirium

  • Drugs
  • Endocrine (diabetes, thyroid, parathyroid or adrenal dysfunction)
  • Epilepsy
  • Lung Disease (pneumonia, COPD, sleep apnoea)
  • Infection (Encephalitis, meningitis, syphilis, HIV, septicaemia)
  • Injury (Concussion, subdural, extradural haemorrhage, burns, general and cardiac surgery, #NOF)
  • Intracranial (Tumour, raised ICP)
  • Renal (acute and chronic end stage failure)
  • Intestinal (Carcinoma, obstruction, ileus)
  • Unstable circulation (Arrythmias, CCF, Myocardial infarction, Hypertensive encephalopathy, hypoperfusion, blood loss, shock)
  • Metabolic (Hyponatremia, Hypokalaemia, Acidosis/alkalosis, hepatic failure, dehydration)

Adapted from Bloch and Singh, Foundation of Clinical Pyschiatry

2 comments:

أم الليث said...

dunno why perlukan mnemonic when the cause is... like.. everything! Hehehe

nice layout

Hafiz said...

@ aliya, that is true, but as a medical student, this list will handy during exam :)

The current layout is not created by me and I may used this as a foundation for my next layout.