My Mother Is 82 Years Old And Has A History

Posted on Wed, 27 Nov 2019

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 Answered on

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Question : My mother is 82 years old and has a history of presenting with delirium symptoms as a result of taking certain medications in the past. Since early this year she began to present these symptoms more consistently. We changed one of her meds and she seemed to improve for a while. She was hospitalized with UTI related sepsis and the symptoms peaked but she eventually came back to herself. She has the symptoms off and on now and they seem to improve if she is given antibiotics but days after the antibiotics are finished the symptoms return.

Answered by Dr. Panagiotis Zografakis (7 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
dementia probably

Detailed Answer:
Hello,

the elderly may present with such symptoms (hallucinations, aggressiveness, reduced cognitive functions, etc) particularly when an acute event occurs. A UTI is such a case. It's very likely that her chronic problem is dementia which may present as forgetfulness when everything else is stable and under control but it may also present as delirium on other occasions. Checking some basic indices is essential to exclude various disorders like anemia, electrolyte imbalance, renal failure, etc. Checking her temperature and the other vital signs is very important as well. If everything else seems to be fine and she still has symptoms then she'd better be referred to a neurologist or psychiatrist for further assessment.

I hope I've answered your question. Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Kind Regards,
Dr Panagiotis Zografakis,
Internal Medicine Specialist

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar