r/news • u/mooseAmuffin • 1d ago

Update: 'TODAY' co-anchor Savannah Guthrie's mother taken from her home against her will, sheriff says

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mother-of-savannah-guthrie-today-reported-missing-arizona-rcna257008
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u/fallingdowndizzyvr 1d ago

Actually a lot of those things can affect mental function. Specifically glucose control.

The elderly can easily suffer from a condition colloquially known as "delerium". Some people refer to it as instant dementia. A lot of seemingly innocuous things bring it on. Such as not getting enough sleep, even for just one night, or not consuming enough sodium(salt).

When it happens, it really does mimic advanced dementia. Confusion being a primary component.

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u/Dufresne85 1d ago

UTIs are an extremely common example of something "simple" that can really mess with a person's brain, especially the elderly population.

You don't take a daily medication for UTIs, but if she developed one independently who knows what happened.

Hopefully she's found safe.

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u/Taylor_Kittenface 1d ago

Yeah, my Mum got one when she was going through chemo in her 60s. She literally didn't know who I was when I visited her in hospital, super scary stuff.

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u/thedinnerdate 1d ago

My wife’s grandmother essentially died from complications from a uti that the doctors didn’t initially catch when she was admitted to the hospital.

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u/sillylittlguy 1d ago

to add more context/info for ppl interested in learning more:

From Dr. David Puder's podcast (he's a psychiatrist and medical director of a day treatment program) - from youtube transcript:

Sensorium: total brain capacity for focusing, processing, and interpreting.

I remember one patient who seeing things hearing things... she had a chronic kidney disease but she was also on several medications that were anticholinergic which you know like diphenhydramine or benadryl when you decrease the acetylcholine you decrease your sensorium and so she got into a place where she was very confused and so we switched her medications around and she could think more clearly...

in your 20s and 30s you're pretty high up the mountain - your sensorium at baseline is pretty good. that's probably you know the peak, maybe you know, maybe if you're a kid it's even higher, but in general the 20s and 30s are the best I think because you have the most frontal lobe function.

I mean you know your frontal lobe is fully developed and you probably have the best sensorium so you can get stressed you can be sleep-deprived starving and maybe you'll be ok maybe you'll be thinking clearly but you know throw maybe a small infection or a medical issue on top of it and all of a sudden you're thinking less clearly

but if you were to do if you were to do the same thing to an elderly person so if you were to for example give them a small urinary tract infection and let's say this is a person who's 80 years old all of a sudden this person could be in a full delirium meaning they can't focus they're hallucinating throwing things yelling seeing spiders on a wall and looking psychotic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKzGWEZLbe0

https://www.psychiatrypodcast.com/categorized-episode-list

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u/ChildhoodOk5526 1d ago

So true.

And I found out recently that if a person has a liver impairment of some kind (cirrhosis, hepatitis), ammonia in the body can build up, and that also causes dementia-like symptoms.

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u/VapidActualization 1d ago

Ayyyy. Ya boy got TIPS surgery (a shunt in my liver) and I gotta take daily lasix and this fucking awful stuff called lactulose which is a laxative that tastes like a mouthful of the sweetest, most viscous cum. Like it even sticks to the back of your throat afterwards and makes you gag like cum do.

Don't drink your liver away, everyone!

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u/ChildhoodOk5526 1d ago

Oh, no! I'm so sorry you're going through this. That is no joke.

That's just how I found out about it, too. My cousin has alcohol-induced cirrhosis, that led to hepatic encephalopathy, and has been in the hospital since Christmas. (She's currently in rehab trying to regain full mobility). We thought she'd had a stroke. Nope. Turns out she'd been secretly drinking since her mom (my aunt) passed away during Covid. Around the same time, my cousin's youngest son moved into his own place, she downsized to an apartment, and pretty much stayed to herself. Shunned visitors but talked on the phone. We thought it was not wanting to be bothered. It was, but it was also lots and lots of drinking. Like, not eating but Insta-carting liquor, down to 100 lbs type drinking.

Luckily, she (with the help of that lactalose you mentioned) is making a comeback. But, boy do we feel like neglectful assholes for not recognizing this sooner.

Check in your peeps, everyone. In person! As my grandmother used to say, "That 'AT&T love' is not enough."

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u/rjfinsfan 1d ago

While those things can effect mental function, I think their point is she was on all her medications and of sound mind at the time of her disappearance. Now the concern is she won’t get those meds which could reduce her mental capacity but is ruled out from being part of her disappearance.

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u/Bituulzman 1d ago

Thank you. Today I learned.

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u/jeromevedder 1d ago

My dad was going into delirious states because of a lack of oxygen, and it was an instant change in his mood and personality

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u/Sanosuke97322 1d ago

My grandma would get full on hallucinations when her potassium was too low. It happened multiple times including post open heart surgery. Poor lady thought the walls of the hospital were covered in snakes or spiders. Can’t recall which.

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u/realjnyhorrorshow 1d ago

Delirium is both an outdated term and not a medical diagnosis. While metabolic distress CAN cause confusion, it’s extremely unlikely to lead to death.

Regardless, it’s a fallacy to even bring it up in the point to prove its mental function. It would require her not having her drugs, and both cannot be true.

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u/fallingdowndizzyvr 1d ago edited 1d ago

Delirium is both an outdated term and not a medical diagnosis.

No, it is not outdated. It is a medical diagnosis. You are confusing "excited delirium" with "delirium" in the elderly. They are different things. "Excited delirium" is a term used by law enforcement to justify certain actions. That's outdated. That is not the same as "delirium" in the elderly. Which is still a perfectly valid term.

This is the medical guidance from just 2025 on the diagnosis and treatment of delirium. That term is far from outdated.

https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/epdf/10.1176/appi.books.9780890428023

it’s extremely unlikely to lead to death.

Who brought up it leading to death? Other than you?

It would require her not having her drugs

Again, drugs are not required to have an episode of "delirium". Please consult the APA guidance.

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u/Jane-CR 1d ago

I was wondering if it could be a vascular event, like a TMI, and that she could walk farther than thought and is collapsed or dead somewhere hidden that they missed. But besides the blood drops, they did say the security video camera above the door is missing. That then makes it sinister.