Key result
Managing acute mental status changes requires precise terminology and an individualized diagnostic approach.
Why the study?
Clinicians face difficulty accurately defining and diagnosing acute changes in mental status due to poor differentiation in terminology and a broad differential diagnosis.
A clear understanding of terminology and differential diagnosis is essential for evaluating and treating patients with acute mental status changes.
Emphasizes precise terminology in acute mental status evaluation; leaves open prospective validation of individualized diagnostic strategies.
Acute changes in mental status can occur in any hospital setting. Clinicians are often at a loss to define accurately the course of a change in mental status, because of poor differentiation in the terminology surrounding this difficult diagnosis. A clear understanding of the differences among several levels of altered mental status is needed to evaluate, accurately diagnose, and treat those patients with altered mental states. The differential diagnosis of altered mental status is diffuse and includes supratentorial mass lesions, infratentorial mass lesions, and metabolic disorders. Development of an individualized differential diagnosis and diagnostic approach for cases of altered mental status represents a challenge to all levels of clinicians.
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Kevin Judy (1997) conducted a review in Acute mental status changes. Accurate diagnosis and treatment of acute mental status changes require a clear understanding of terminology and an individualized diagnostic approach to differentiate among various underlying causes.
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