|
| | |
Delirium tremens
Delirium tremens A neurological symptom of alcohol withdrawal seen in chronic alcoholism, with includes symptoms of psychosis. These may include uncontrollable trembling, hallucinations, severe anxiety, sweating, and sudden feelings of terror. Delirium tremens can be both frightening and, in severe cases, deadly. Treatment includes observation, comfort care, and in some cases medication.
RELATED TERMS--------------------------------------
Neurological
The medical science that deals with the nervous system and disorders affecting it.
Symptom
A subjective manifestation of a pathological condition. Symptoms are reported by the affected individual rather than observed by the examiner.
Alcohol
An organic chemical in which one or more hydroxyl (OH) groups are attached to carbon (C) atoms in place of hydrogen (H) atoms. Common alcohols include ethyl alcohol or ethanol (found in alcoholic beverages), methyl alcohol or methanol (can cause blindness) and propyl alcohol or propanol (used as a solvent and antiseptic). Rubbing alcohol is a mixture of acetone, methyl isobutyl ketone, and ethyl alcohol. In everyday talk, alcohol usually refers to ethanol as, for example, in wine, beer, and liquor. It can cause changes in behavior and be addictive.
Withdrawal
The act or process of giving up the use of a drug to which one has become addicted or dependent.
Chronic
Ongoing or recurring. Chronic medical conditions include diabetes, epilepsy, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Alcoholism
A primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol, use of alcohol despite adverse consequences, and distortions in thinking, most notably denial. Each of these symptoms may be continuous or periodic.
Psychosis
A mental disorder with serious derangement of the thinking process, often including delusions or hallucinations.
Anxiety
A psychological and/or biological response to stress. Feelings of anxiety involve discomforting apprehension or concern, which may include symptoms such as cognitive difficulties, hypersensitivity, dizziness, muscular weakness, breathing difficulties, irregular heart beat, sweating, and sensations of fear. Typically, anxiety is a natural and healthy response to life experiences. However, exaggerated or chronic anxiety often indicates an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can be produced by external stress (exogenous anxiety) or internal stress (endogenous anxiety).
Delirium
An abnormal mental state characterized by excitement and hallucinations.
SIMILAR TERMS--------------------------------------
Delirium
An abnormal mental state characterized by excitement and hallucinations.
Delivery
See drug delivery.
Delivery room
A room in a hospital equipped for childbirth.
Delivery, breech
Delivery in which the buttocks present before the head.
Delivery, footling
There are single-footling or double-footling deliveries depending upon whether the presenting part of the baby at delivery is just one foot or both feet.
PREVIOUS AND NEXT TERMS--------------------------------------
DEHP
A softener for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a plastic polymer used in a wide array of products. Unplasticized PVC is hard and brittle at room temperature. A plasticizer (softener) is typically added to increase the flexibility of the polymer. DEHP is the plasticizer for most PVC medical devices. Devices that may contain DEHP-plasticized PVC include: intravenous (IV) bags and tubing, umbilical artery catheters, blood bags and infusion tubing, enteral nutrition feeding bags, nasogastric tubes, peritoneal dialysis bags and tubing, tubing used in cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) procedures, tubing used in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and tubing used during hemodialysis.
Dehydroepiandrosterone
DHEA. A steroid hormone made by the adrenal glands that acts on the body much like testosterone and is converted into testosterone and estrogen. DHEA and its sulfate (DHEAS) are abundant in the body, but their normal roles are not fully understood. The blood levels of DHEA and DHEAS decline with age.
Deinococcus radiodurans
A bacterium that can survives extremely high levels of radiation and therefore has high potential for radioactive waste cleanup. The genome of Deinococcus radiodurans has been sequenced. It is composed of two chromosomes, a megaplasmid, and a small plasmid. The total genome contains 3,284, 156 base pairs. Deinococcus radiodurans is an organism in which all systems for DNA repair, DNA damage export, desiccation and starvation recovery, and genetic redundancy are all present in one cell.
Delay, developmental
Behind schedule in reaching milestones of early childhood development.
Deletion
Loss of a segment of DNA from a chromosome (and hence from the genome).
Delirium tremens
Delivery, breech
Delivery in which the buttocks present before the head.
Delivery, footling
There are single-footling or double-footling deliveries depending upon whether the presenting part of the baby at delivery is just one foot or both feet.
Delta cell, pancreatic
A type of cell in the pancreas (the organ of the digestive system located behind the stomach). Within the pancreas, the delta cells are located in areas called the islets of Langerhans. The delta cells make somatostatin, a hormone that inhibits the release of numerous hormones in the body.
Delusional parasitosis
A mistaken belief that one is infested by parasites such as mites, lice, fleas, spiders, worms, or other organisms.
Demarcation
A setting of limits; a boundary; marking the limits of, delimiting; setting apart, separating. The word "demarcation" is used in medicine mainly in the sense of determining and marking off boundaries. For example, the surface demarcation in respect to damaged tissue can refer to the boundary between the living tissue and the necrotic (dead) tissue.
We thank you for using the Health Dictionary to search for Delirium tremens. If you have a better definition for Delirium tremens than the one presented here, please let us know by making use of the suggest a term option. This definition of Delirium tremens may be disputed by other professionals. Our attempt is to provide easy definitions on Delirium tremens and any other medical topic for the public at large.This dictionary contains 25007 terms. |
|
|
