Herbal Remedies for Delirium

23 Jun

Posted by Dr John Anne as Uncategorized

Delirium is often a scary word for someone and in fact it is a scary disorder. It is a complete state of confusion that affects your mental state to the point that you are unaware of what is going on around you. It develops very quickly and can leave you feeling confused, unaware of your surroundings, and disoriented. Besides your mental feelings it can also leave you with problems dealing with speech, memory, emotions, and your overall personality can change. Both for yourself and the people that are close to you, delirium can be very difficult and stressful to deal with.

California poppy is a Native American remedy that is commonly used in Europe as a relaxant and antispasmodic. Because of its mild sedative and analgesic properties, it may be given safely to children. California poppy is used for anxiety, sleeplessness, stomach cramps, and toothache. Studies in Germany and France have supported the traditional use of California poppy for muscle relaxing, anxiety, and pain relief. It is cooling and can be given to people with nervousness that has excess heat or heat caused by adrenal weakness. It is one of the most reliable and safe relaxing herbs for children and adults and is excellent in formulas with wild oats and St. John’s wort for healing addictions. California Poppy has a taste of bitter, acrid and a temperature of cool.

What Causes Delirium?

Delirium is a syndrome (a pattern of symptoms) rather than a disorder or diagnosis, which can develop for a number of medical reasons. In order to establish treatments for delirium, the underlying medical problem needs to be determined and addressed. Some common causes of delirious feelings are: Substance abuse or the combination of certain drugs and/or alcohol, Improper use of medications or adverse drug reactions to certain prescription medications, A symptom of substance withdrawal, Head injury or brain infection, High fever, Infections such as pneumonia, Lack of oxygen or blood flow to the brain, Sleep deprivation, Excessive stress.

Delirium can be brought on by yourself or medical conditions that you are affected with. Drug induced problems such as substance abuse, improper use of prescription medications, and substance withdrawal are the more common causes of delirium. Medical conditions include a high fever, head injury, pneumonia, and lack of oxygen to the brain, severe sleep deprivation, and Dementia. In the case of Dementia, the elderly are more at risk for delirium in this case since they are more prone to developing brain disorders.

Treatment of emergence delirium generally involves treatment of the signs and symptoms. The primary goal is to rule out possible physiological or pharmacological causes of the signs and symptoms (Table 2 ). Supplemental oxygen, fluid and electrolyte replacement, and adequate analgesia may be appropriate once the cause of the signs and symptoms has been determined. Medications used for emergence delirium include benzodiazepines for calming if the delirium is severe and antipsychotics, such as haloperidol and physostigmine, which reverse delirium associated with anticholinergics often used during general anesthesia. Medications such as naloxone and flumazenil may also be used to reverse oversedative effects that may be due to narcotics and benzodiazepines used intraoperatively.