Special Circumstances: Agitation with Dementia in Emergency Departments

Older persons presenting to the emergency department (ED) with agitation have a high prevalence of cognitive impairment which may not have been previously diagnosed.. Agitation in the ED may have many causes, one of the most prominent of which is delirium which occurs in 8–10% of older persons in the ED, and is often not diagnosed till hospital admission . The recently developed IPA algorithm for diagnosis and management of agitation in dementia is applicable to the ED environment particularly as it applies to delirium.