Altered mental status is a symptom of acute (not chronic) higher cerebral dysfunction—affecting memory, attention, and awareness—that must be distinguished from dementia (a gradual, progressive decline) and characterized by delirium (waxing and waning confusion), and it requires diagnostic evaluation to identify an underlying cause rather than being treated as a diagnosis itself. Its differential spans systemic disease affecting the central nervous system (including infection, metabolic/electrolyte disturbance, hypoxia/hypercapnia), primary intracranial disease, exogenous toxins, and drug withdrawal states, while conditions causing focal or global dysfunction without diffuse confusion (psychosis, stroke, tumor) are notable exclusions. This is a topic within emergency medicine, focused on differential diagnosis and initial stabilization of neurologic and systemic presentations.
Altered mental status is a symptom of acute (not chronic) higher cerebral dysfunction—affecting memory, attention, and awareness—that must be distinguished from dementia (a gradual, progressive decli…