| Organic brain syndrome | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| ICD-10 | F06.9 |
| ICD-9 | 310.9 |
| DiseasesDB | 9266 |
| MedlinePlus | 001401 |
| eMedicine | emerg/345 |
| MeSH | D019965 |
Organic brain syndrome (OBS), also known as organic brain disease (OBD) or organic brain disorder, is an older and nearly obsolete general term from psychiatry, referring to many physical disorders that cause impaired mental function.[1] It usually does not include psychiatric disorders. Originally, the term was created to distinguish physical (termed "organic") causes of mental impairment from psychiatric (termed "functional") disorders, but this division became increasingly difficult to make as the physical correlates of mental problems become more numerous. Thus, the term (which was never well-defined) is now almost officially obsolete term in psychiatry, having been removed from DSM-IV, but still occasionally used in practice and in the literature.
Acute organic brain syndrome is (by definition) a recently appearing state of mental impairment, as a result of intoxication, drug overdose, infection, pain, and many other physical problems affecting mental status. In medical contexts, "acute" means "of recent onset". As is the case with most acute disease problems, acute organic brain syndrome is often temporary–however this is not guaranteed (a recent-onset problem may continue to be chronic or long term). A more specific medical term for the acute subset of organic brain syndromes is delirium.[2]
Chronic organic brain syndrome is long-term. For example, some forms of chronic drug or alcohol dependence can cause organic brain syndrome due to their long-lasting or permanent toxic effects on brain function.[3] Other common causes of chronic organic brain syndrome sometimes listed are the various types of dementia, which result from permanent brain damage due to strokes, Alzheimer's disease, or other damaging causes which are not reversible.
Though OBS is a common diagnosis in the elderly, like the various types of dementias it is related to a disease processes and is not an inevitable part of aging. In some of the older literature, there was an attempt to separate organic brain syndrome from dementia, but this was related to an older world view in which dementia was thought to be a part of normal aging, and thus did not represent a special disease process. The later identification of various dementias as clear pathologies is an example of the types of pathological problems discovered to be associated with mental states, and is one of the areas which led to abandonment of all further attempts to clearly define and use OBS as a term.
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Disorders that cause injury or damage to the brain and contribute to OBS include, but are not limited to:
Other conditions that may be related to organic brain syndrome include: clinical depression, neuroses, and psychoses, which may occur simultaneously with the OBS.
Symptoms of OBS vary with the disease that is responsible. However, the more common symptoms of OBS are confusion; impairment of memory, judgment, and intellectual function; and agitation. Often these symptoms are attributed to psychiatric illness, which causes a difficulty in diagnosis.
Treatment of OBS varies with the causative disorder or disease. It is important to note that it is not a primary diagnosis and a cause needs to be sought out and treated.
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