IS DELIRIUM DIFFERENT WHEN IT OCCURS IN DEMENTIA - A STUDY USING THE DELIRIUM RATING-SCALE

The authors studied 61 geropsychiatric patients with delirium from a c ohort of 843 consecutive admissions to a geriatric clinical research u nit. A central study goal was to assess how the presence of dementia a ffected the presentation of delirium. Eighteen delirious (D) and 43 de lirious-demented (D-D) patients were compared on the Delirium Rating S cale (DRS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Brief Psychiatric Ra ting Scale (BPRS), and EEG. D-D patients had lower MMSE scores, but no differences were found in total DRS or BPRS scores or in EEG grade. D RS items were similar in the two groups except that D-D had move cogni tive impairment than D. An exploratory principal components analysis o f DRS items identified two cove factors. The authors conclude that the presentation of delirium in the set ting of concurrent dementia is ve ry similar to delirium without dementia, with subtle differences proba bly attributable to dementia.