The delirium, or rather the mental confusion, could be a characteristic symptom of Covid-19 in frail elderly. Investigate this possibility a study of King’s College of London published on Age and Ageing which analyzed data from more than 800 people over the age of 65, including 322 hospitalized patients and 535 other people using the app Covid Symptom Study to record your symptoms.
–
Mental confusion is the only symptom
The researchers found that the elderly hospitalized classified as “fragile” they were more likely to have had delirium as one of the symptoms, than people of the same age who were not “frail”. For one in five patients hospitalized mental confusion was the only symptom, even without fever or cough. And a third of the app users who mentioned delirium didn’t have the classic symptoms of cough or fever. “Fragility” is a medical term that indicates a condition of precarious psychophysical balance in which an event normally of little importance causes important changes in the state of health. Adding a new drug to what an elderly person is already taking, a flu or minor surgery may be enough, and a general deterioration in health conditions begins to occur. the medical description of people who have difficulty recovering from daily illnesses and accidents. They are also more likely to fall or end up in hospital when they get sick.
–
Peculiar symptoms for age groups
While the three main symptoms of a Covid infection are continuous cough, fever above 37.8 C, and a change in the sense of smell and taste (about 85% of people will have at least one of these symptoms), it considering that some age groups may have specific symptoms, such as diarrhea and vomiting in children. Delirium, defined as “confusion, disorientation or sleepiness” may be peculiar to frail elderly people. Other symptoms common to the “frail” group in the research were fatigue and breathlessness. Doctors and caregivers should pay attention to any changes in mental status in older people, such as confusion or strange behavior, and be alert to the fact that this could be an early sign of coronavirus infection, wrote Dr. Rose Penfold, of the King’s College from London, co-author of the research.
–
The expert’s comment
known from pre-Covid-19 literature data that changes in the environment, times, people can cause delirium in the elderly with multiple pathologies. The new coronavirus epidemic has complicated this series with further factors that, even alone, are able to cause delirium– comments Dr. Sandro Iannaccone, head of the Rehabilitation Unit for Cognitive-Motor Neurological Disorders of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital in Milan – . Among these the difficult cerebral oxygenation for Covid-19 pneumonia, the necessary isolation of infected patients and therefore also the removal from the “reference” figures (wife, husband, children, grandchildren, brothers and caregivers). It is therefore important, during Covid-19 hospitalizations, to address these problems and prevent them by maintaining adequate oxygenation, making eye contact with family members via tablets and cell phones, and through daily interviews with psychological and neuropsychological, removing the patient as soon as clinical evolution permits. The Neuropsychology service of our hospital intervened on these parameters where, in the midst of the pandemic, psychologists personally supported doctors and nurses in interviews with patients and, through telemedicine and the use of tablets, allowed them to maintain contact. with their relatives.
—
October 6, 2020 (change October 6, 2020 | 10:01 am)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
– .
