Dementia And Delirium Effect On A Person Is On The Rise

According to case studies, the rate at which both dementia and delirium can affect a person is on the rise because of the increasing population worldwide (McCrow, Sullivan, Beattie, 2014). Older adults are one of the fastest growing populations in the world. The first baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) turned 65 in the year 2011 (McCrow, 2014). With the increasing population of elders, there is also an increase in incidence of delirium. Up to 36 percent of aged people admitted to healthcare facilities have developed delirium (Schuckit, 2014). It is clear that delirium presents a significant problem for the aged admitted to healthcare facilities. There have been developments and initiatives in healthcare facilities to help†¦show more content†¦The necessity to integrate this knowledge when caring for the older population is desirable because the population above 55 years is among the fastest growing population in America according to the U.S. census (2010). Tolson Booth Schofield (2011) discuss that older people are at a greater risk of developing delirium following an age-related impairment of cerebral metabolism, which causes a significant decrease in the synthesis of neurotransmitters, in particular, acetylcholine. According to Hosie, Lobb, Agar, Davidson, and Phillips (2014), older people are often affected by at least one chronic condition such as dementia. Unlike delirium, dementia is a chronic condition that lasts at least six months and in most cases occurs progressively. Also, the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is associated with a chronic decline in acetylcholine (Redfern Ross, 2006). Therefore, this explains why symptoms of dementia and delirium overlap, especially memory loss in both conditions. The overlapping symptoms, therefore, make differentiation between the two conditions difficult, especially when delirium is superimposed on dementia. It is because of this that identifying delirium is of great significance to the older population. The elderly patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) who have been diagnosed with delirium have unique characteristics (Britton, Russell, 2003). Some of the