Delirium
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Spike Jones also inspired the French composer André Popp, who in 1958 released Delirium in hi-fi under the name Elsa Popping and Her Pixieland Band, featuring edited snippets and manipulations of the speed of the magnetic tape."--Mondo Exotica (2000) by Francesco Adinolfi |
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Delirium is a medical term used to describe an acute and relatively sudden (developing over hours to days) decline in attention-focus, perception, and cognition. It is commonly associated with a disturbance of consciousness (eg, reduced clarity of awareness of the environment). The change in cognition (memory deficit, disorientation, language disturbance) or the development of a perceptual disturbance, must be one that is not better accounted for by a preexisting, established, or evolving dementia. Usually the rapidly fluctuating time course of delirium is used to help in the latter distinction.
Because it represents a change in cognitive function, the diagnosis cannot be made without knowledge of the affected person's baseline level of cognitive function.
Without careful assessment, delirium can easily be confused with a number of psychiatric disorders because many of the signs and symptoms are conditions present in dementia, depression, and psychosis.
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