Everything about Mental Confusion totally explained
Confusion, of a
pathological degree, usually refers to loss of orientation (ability to place oneself correctly in the world by time, location, and personal identity) and often memory (ability to correctly recall previous events or learn new material). Confusion as such isn't synonymous with inability to focus attention, although severe inability to focus attention can cause, or greatly contribute to, confusion. Together, confusion and inability to focus attention (both of which affect
judgment) are the twin symptoms of a
loss or
lack of normal brain function (mentation).
The milder degrees of confusion as pathological symptoms, are relative to previous function. Thus (for example) a mathematician confused about manipulation of simple fractions, may be showing pathology which wouldn't be diagnosable in a person without training in this area. Thus, as with the case of delirium, the minor degrees of pathological confusion can't be diagnosed without knowledge of a person's "baseline", or normal, level of mental functioning.
Confusion may result from a relatively
sudden brain dysfunction (see
delirium). It may also result from chronic organic brain pathologies such as
dementia. In either case, confusion is usually associated with some degree of loss of ability to focus attention, but (as noted) the association isn't invariable, especially for lesser degrees of impairment.
Many health problems may cause the syndromes of
delirium or
dementia. These syndromes may also occur together, and both of them usually include the symptom of confusion. Since mental function is extremely sensitive to health, the appearance of either a new confused state, or a new loss of ability to focus attention (delirium), may indicate that a new physical or mental
illness has appeared, or that a chronic physical or mental illness has progressed (become more severe).
Possible causes
Confusion, like inability to focus attention, is a very general and nonspecific symptom of brain or mental dysfunction. In addition to many organic causes of confusion relating to a structural defect or a metabolic problem in the brain (analogous to hardware problems in a computer), there are also some psychiatric causes of confusion, which may also include a component of mental or emotional stress, mental disease, or other "programming" problems (analogous to software problems in a computer).
Another use of the term describes the experience of persons without medical or psychological pathology, who suffer from confusion on a regular basis. Evidence can readily be gathered by entering "confused" in a search engine: in Google, the word produced 280
million hits on 1/22/08.
Many types of information pathology such as propaganda, lies, and disinformation contribute to the confusion of ordinary people, as described in "Lethal American Confusion."
Medical and psychiatric causes of confusion are too many to list by specific pathology. However general categories of possible causes of mental confusion include:
Gross structural brain disorders
Neurological disorders
Various neurological disorders
General metabolic causes
Lack of sleep
Body temperature problems (hypothermia, heat stroke, hyperpyrexia, etc.)
Infection (sometimes independently of fever)
Nutritional deficiency
Allergic reactions and autoimmune diseases
Circulatory
Intracranial Hypertension
Lack of essential metabolic fuels, nutrients, etc.
Hypoxia,
Hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia
Electrolyte imbalance (dehydration, water intoxication)
Toxication
Intoxication by various drugs (alcohol, anaesthetics, marijuana, etc.)
Poisons (including carbon monoxide and metabolic blockade)
Medications, including psychotropic medications
Mental illness
Mania
Depression
Schizophrenia
Psychological stressors
Distraction
Emotional shock (great fear, grief, anger, etc.)
Many types of information pathology such as propaganda, lies, and disinformation contribute to the confusion of ordinary people, as described above.
Possible co-existing symptoms
Confusion is a symptom. It may range from mild to severe. The confused state may include also:
Jumbled or disorganized thought
Unusual, bizarre, or aggressive behavior
Difficulty in solving problems or tasks, especially those known to have been previously easy for the person
Inability to recognize family members or familiar objects, or to give approximate location of family members not present.
Illusions
Hallucinations
Paranoia
Disorientation
Inability to focus attention (see delirium)
Drowsiness
Abnormal sleeplessness and/or hyperactivity
Cures
Confusion is a symptom, like shortness of breath or pain. Like other symptoms, the cure relates to the underlying cause.
Sources
Yahoo! Health
National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mental Confusion'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mental_confusion.totallyexplained.com">Mental confusion Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
