Delirium Meaning: Alzheimer’s or UTI Onset?

Delirium Meaning: Alzheimer’s or UTI Onset?

With September slated as Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, Goodbye UTI is using this time to educate caregivers at long term care facilities and at home about the correlation between UTI onset and memory-related symptoms.

UTIs In The Elderly Cause Delirium

Urinary Tract Infections are often overlooked or misdiagnosed as a cause of memory loss, which can endanger patients. We are working to set the record straight on what is and what is not a UTI as well as how to treat them.

The symptoms of a UTI for most of us include a burning sensation and the frequent urge to urinate. These symptoms are not always present in the older population; instead, they display a sudden onset of confusion, withdrawal or agitation all of which mimic signs of a cognitive disorder.  This is known as "delirium". 

Delirium is the result of a UTI which has migrated to the kidneys where the infection has become very serious and has caused a fever.  

Delirium Is Most Often Found In Long Term Care Facilities

In long-term care facilities, UTIs account for the second most common infection and the most common cause of hospitalization for bacterial infections.

While the general population isn’t trained on signs of UTI onset, skilled nurses serving older adults in LTC facilities know that diagnosis is an essential element to treating this infection and can be a matter of life or death.

There are two groups to worry about:

1) Those who are healthy one day and confused the next. These are the patients who can likely be treated quickly and be restored to their former healthy state; and

2) Those who have had confusion and cognitive issues for an extended period of time.

In both cases these patients are unable to properly communicate what’s wrong, so it is up to the caregiver to take the first step and rule out a UTI before it leads to a kidney infection and possibly even death.

Treatment For Elderly UTIs

Often a UTI will be diagnosed and antibiotics prescribed. New, natural supplement alternatives, such as D-Mannose, offer a method of treatment that does not interact with other drugs patients may be taking, and unlike antibiotics, do not strip the good with the bad in the case of bacteria. Read the medical research which has shown D-Mannose to be a safe and effective treatment for the elderly.

In cases when tests do not indicate the presence of UTI bacteria, these natural supplements can provide a safe, first line of defense for a possible a-symptomatic UTI. Like a vitamin, the body takes what it needs and flushes out the rest in 60 minutes or less, along with E-coli if present, coating the urinary tract to make it impossible for more bacteria to “hook on”.

How To Identify A UTI Among Alzheimer's Patients

According to the Alzheimer’s Association blog, UTIs, or urinary tract infections, can cause changes in someone with Alzheimer’s disease that you might never expect. The impact can be really profound. Some of the titles of the message board threads in which UTIs are mentioned tell the story well, including “Sudden Decline,” “Yelling out and undressing in public” and “Manic Episodes. Here is a sampling of some of the posts on the topic:

• “For me, falling and hallucinations always mean check for UTI.”

• “Our compromised elders, especially females often develop, ‘silent’ urinary tract infections. These UTIs are called ‘silent’ because they usually have no symptoms of pain, no burning, no odor, no frequency, etc. BUT there will often be profound changes in behaviors.”

• “UTI, UTI, UTI, UTI, UTI! When my mother has a UTI she sleeps all day. We can’t get her out of bed, she will also stop eating. Have the doctor check her for a UTI.”

• “UTI and dehydration!!!!! I’ve never been so happy to get that kind of diagnosis. They have her on IV antibiotics. The interesting thing was that her urine was clear and they were pretty sure she didn’t have a UTI. Luckily the testing came back positive.”
• “With my aunt, I could always diagnose the UTI because she started acting crazier than her current norm. (When she picked up a glass of water and threw the water over her shoulder, I called it right away — UTI.)”

A Safe, Natural and Effective UTI Treatment For The Elderly