What is the difference between dementia and delirium?

What is the difference between dementia and delirium?

Gus Alva (Medical Director, ATP Clinical Research) gives expert video advice on: What causes dementia?; Who is most at risk for developing dementia?; How do I prevent myself from developing dementia? and more...

The difference between delirium and dementia is that delirium can be reversed. There's usually a cause that can be identified and fixed. With delirium, there's a very acute onset, or a very fast onset of a confusional state. There's a waxing on and off of the censorial state of the individual; they'll be alert and then confused, alert and confused, and typically it occurs very rapidly. There's oftentimes an associated situation with an increase in temperature, and oftentimes lab testing can help along the lines of detecting what exactly just recently went wrong with the individual that became delirious; it could be due to an acute intoxication or acute withdrawal from different medications, or it could be because of a combination of different things the individual might have ingested. So, with delirium there's usually a very fast onset that can be fixed and reversed with appropriate medical care. With dementia, there's oftentimes sort of a gradual thing that sets in insidiously, meaning that, again, it sort of creeps in unnoticed and gradually gets worse.