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The meaning of acute confusional state from the perspective of elderly patients
- Authors:
- ANDERSSON Edith M., et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17(7), July 2002, pp.652-663.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The meaning of the patients' lived experiences of being and having been confused was interpreted as Being trapped in incomprehensible experiences and a turmoil of past and present and here and there, comprising the themes trying to get a grip on the experience of the confusion, encountering past, present and the realm of the imagination as reality during the period of confusion and confronting the idea of having been confused. Contradictory to earlier research the patients remembered and could tell in great detail about their Acute Confusional State. While confused, the confusional state means that impressions of all kinds invade the mind of the person and are experienced as reality, making him/her a victim of these impressions rather than the one who controls what comes into his/her mind. While in the middle of these experiences the person simultaneously senses that the impressions are unreal, thus indicating that he/she is in some sort of borderland between understanding and not understanding. The things that come into the mind of the person can either be frightening or neutral or enjoyable scenarios that seem to be mainly familiar but can also be unknown. These scenarios seem to be a mixture of past and present, of events and people while they seem to float from location to location. The findings indicates that what takes place during the Acute Confusional State is not nonsense but probably a mix of the patient's life history, their present situation and above all a form of communication concerning their emotional state and inner experiences in this new situation