• Orientation to person, place, and time
• Normal attention span
• Intact recent memory
• Intact remote memory
• Normal word comprehension, reading, and writing
• Intact judgment

• Alcohol intoxication
• Low blood sugar
• Head trauma or concussion
• Fluid and electrolyte imbalance
• Nutritional deficiencies -- particularly lack of niacin, thiamine, vitamin C, or vitamin B-12.
• Hyperthermia (fever)
• Hypothermia -- a drop in body temperature can cause sudden confusion.
• Hypoxemia -- chronic pulmonary disorders can produce persistent confusion
• Environmental (such as heat stroke, heavy metal poisoning, hypothermia, or methanol intoxication)
• Drugs (such as atropine, chloroquine, cimetidine, CNS depressants in large doses, cycloserine, oral digitalis medicines, indomethacin, lidocaine, withdrawal from narcotics and barbiturates)
• Organic brain disease

• Attention deficit disorder (ADD)
• Confusion
• Manic depressive illness
• Histrionic personality disorder
• Schizophrenia

Recent and Remote Memory:
Organic syndromes are indicated if there is a loss of recent memory, but remote memory remains intact. Remote memory is lost when there is damage to the upper part of the brain as occurs in Alzheimer's disease. See also memory loss.

Word Comprehension, Reading, and Writing:
These tests screen for aphasia. Some causes for aphasia include:

• Head trauma
• Senile dementia (Alzheimer's type)
• Stroke
• Transient ischemic attack

• Mental retardation
• Emotional dysfunction
• Schizophrenia
• Organic brain disease