Emergency Psychiatry

Society’s psychological reactions to a crisis can be predicted according to disaster response frameworks, which can be used to understand what to build during the evolving COVID-19 crisis, and when those innovations will prove most vital.

As hospital-based psychiatric emergency programs around the country demonstrate the ability to minimize ED boarding, provide cost-savings, and improve patient outcomes and clinician satisfaction, the challenge will be how to keep these models of psychiatric care self-supporting.

This article, the first of a three-part series, describes how hospital-based psychiatric EDs differ from community-based crisis centers.

This article discusses the peculiarities of emergency psychiatric practice and reviews innovations in models of care delivery designed to overcome the challenges of this subspecialty.

If an appropriate treatment is started promptly, the majority of psychiatric emergencies can be resolved within 24 hours without inpatient hospitalization.

What are the symptoms and treatment strategies for this rapidly growing phenomenon in older adults?

In the emergency department, how should patients with behavioral disturbances and especially those with illnesses such as dementia, TBI, autism spectrum disorder, and intellectual disability be managed? Take the quiz and learn more.

The authors compare the clinical features of idiopathic psychosis (eg, schizophrenia) with cannabis-induced psychosis.

We have criminalized mental health problems-a barbaric throwback to the dismal conditions before the Enlightenment.

Helping patients who have significant medical illness as well as mental illness is a challenge, especially when the diagnosis is unclear. Hospital psychiatrists play a critical role in the management of these behaviorally compromised patients.

How does a pituitary result in a psychiatric emergency? Read more clues to this clinical puzzle.

A recent experience on street rounds offered a moment that brought this psychiatrist back to one of the main reasons she chose psychiatry as a profession.

Which patients are at greatest risk for premature death following discharge?

In some segments of the evolving health care system, primary health care teams with psychiatry at their core are becoming a reality. Here are 6 ways psychiatrists add value to primary care health teams.

Here: a review of issues related to assessment of patients for suicide risk in the ED -- and an overview of emerging approaches and research that one day will lead to more reliable assessment and interventions based more on science than on art or luck.

Medical, psychiatric, and/or developmental disorders can be falsified in a variety of ways. Know the warning signs often missed by clinicians.

Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among college students. But only 60% of colleges and universities have a psychiatrist on staff.

The current shortage of psychiatric beds in the US is a major problem. Patients are discharged prematurely and often have to be readmitted or end up homeless or incarcerated.

Gun violence by alienated, disgruntled individuals isn't new. So what changes may help account for our recent spate of mass shootings?

How targeted interventions may reduce the burden of premature mortality among patients with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

This issue of Psychiatric Times covered government fraud, emergency psychiatry, PTSD in practicing psychiatrists, college mental health, and other critical issues.

Nearly half of children who present to emergency departments with self-harm receive no mental health assessment. What are the essential elements needed to interview children and adolescents in the context of a psychiatric emergency?

Jails have a much higher percentage of homeless mentally ill than does the general community, and those with psychiatric disorders (eg, schizophrenia) must often fend for themselves. Here are some solutions.

Currently, 1 in 15 youths undergoing psychiatric evaluation in the emergency department is restrained. This article covers diagnostic and therapeutic interventions that can reduce fear and put the young patient on a path to recovery.

It is important to recognize and document the abilities and deficits of a patient in order to determine capacity.

Acute intoxication is the most likely culprit for an increased risk of violence or agitation, but personality, psychosis, and cognitive problems can all play a role. A skilled clinician can glean a great deal of information in a short period of time.

There is an impressive array of presentations and speakers at an upcoming meeting, the only one in the country to address behavioral emergencies in the acute care setting.

There has probably never been a worse place and worse time to have a severe mental illness than now in the United States. How did we get into this mess?

Good documentation can be used by psychiatrists to enhance the physician-patient relationship. Of course, transparency could come at a price to practitioners, so following reasonable guidelines outlined in this article is key.

Many years ago, the model approach to mental health treatment was the therapeutic community: "As Aristotle noted long ago, man is a social animal and only in a social unit can he experience a whole life." More in this blog.