I found this article very confusing and it did not clarify the issue. Dementia is confusion and a changed personality with memory deficitis that can be from drugs, their interactions, or maybe post traumatic stress from surgery and serious illness and long hospital stays.
Delirium is a medical diagnosis with many of the same symptoms as dementia, but the cause is illness. The toxins from MRSA, for example, will causes signs of dementia, perhaps even taking away the ability to speak. Sepsis causes delirium. UTI's and pneumonia can make a person delirius, or out of it, but they're not demented, just sick and the diagnosis should be delirium.
A diagnosis of dementia is a terrible label, especially if the person is suffering from an undiagnosed infection, because it means care will be denied and the person will be covertly urged to die. They're written as off as better off dead. I know. It happened to my father who died. Almost happened to my mother. And yes, it was infection, MRSA in one and C.Diff in the other.
Delirium is a medical diagnosis with many of the same symptoms as dementia, but the cause is illness. The toxins from MRSA, for example, will causes signs of dementia, perhaps even taking away the ability to speak. Sepsis causes delirium. UTI's and pneumonia can make a person delirius, or out of it, but they're not demented, just sick and the diagnosis should be delirium.
A diagnosis of dementia is a terrible label, especially if the person is suffering from an undiagnosed infection, because it means care will be denied and the person will be covertly urged to die. They're written as off as better off dead. I know. It happened to my father who died. Almost happened to my mother. And yes, it was infection, MRSA in one and C.Diff in the other.