27 (24%) of 112 geriatric patients admitted consecutively to an inpatient psychiatric unit had delirium from underlying medical conditions that was misdiagnosed as a psychiatric disorder, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. “If a patient has a previous psychiatric history, physicians are not as scrupulous or as careful to screen them for underlying medical issues,” said Dr. Meera Balasubramaniam; “they are more likely to send them to a psych unit, thinking all of their behavioral manifestations are actually psychiatric.”
