6 – 9 These are potentially vulnerable subsets of society since many live alone at home without a reliable safety net. 1, 5 In this manuscript, we use the term “cognitive dysfunction” to describe dementia with or without delirium, but we cannot extrapolate our findings to include mild cognitive impairment.Ĭognitive dysfunction in geriatric adults is often unrecognized in emergency department (ED) encounters. 4 Mild cognitive impairment is early AD, manifesting with problems in memory, language, or other mental functions that can be detected by certain screening tests, but that do not otherwise interfere with daily living. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4 th revision criteria to diagnose delirium includes a fluctuating disturbance in consciousness and change in cognition that develops over time, caused by an acute physiological stressor. 3 Where dementia is characterized by a constant and continual decline in higher cognitive functioning, delirium is a temporary disorder of mental capabilities that is a symptom of an acute medical illness. 1 Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which will afflict 1 in 85 persons by 2050, 2 is one well-recognized etiology of dementia, but other causes include strokes, Parkinson’s disease, and head injury. These deficits must be severe enough to impair social or occupational capabilities, and they must represent a decline from previous baseline functioning. Dementia describes a neurodegenerative process characterized by problems with memory, judgment, orientation, and executive functioning. The term cognitive dysfunction includes mild cognitive impairment, delirium, and various stages of dementia.

Mmse reliability and validity