Delirium, a syndrome of cerebral insufficiency

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Abstract

The thesis is presented that a derangement in the general functional metabolism of the brain underlies all instances of delirium and that this is reflected at the clinical level by a characteristic disturbance in cognitive functions and at the physiologic level by a characteristic generalized slowing of the electroencephalogram. As background for this thesis are summarized the studies of a large number of patients exhibiting delirium in the setting of a wide variety of physiologic and biochemical derangements as well as instances of delirium experimentally induced by techniques known to affect cerebral metabolism adversely.

The clinical characteristics of delirium are carefully delineated and the basis established for the identification of delirium and its differentiation from other types of psychologic disturbance commonly seen in organically ill patients.

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    This work was supported in part by a grant from the Foundations Fund for Research in Psychiatry.

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