Psychiatric Emergency: Services (PES) and Comprehensive Programs (CPEP)

In 2007 the Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals included a requirement addressing risks associated with patient suicidality. The rational for this requirement was that suicide has been the most frequently reported sentinel event since the inception of the Sentinel Event Policy in 1996. The Patient Safety Goals on suicide required hospitals implement actions to assess suicide risk, meet client's immediate safety needs and provide information such as a crisis hotline to individuals and family members for crisis situations...

Introduction. Elevated serum CK levels often occur in psychiatric in-patient practice. Although the majority of cases are benign and temporary, it is important to recognize and treat these conditions. Aims. To discuss the etiology, the clinical significance and the management of elevated creatine kinase levels in psychiatric in-patient practice, focusing on antipsychotic-induced rhabdomyolysis. To compare the pathogenesis and the clinical features of rhabdomyolysis and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. Methods...

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BACKGROUND: To investigate the efficacy and indications of zolpidem, a nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic, inducing arousal in vegetative state patients after brain injury. METHODS: One hundred sixty-five patients were divided into 4 groups, according to area of brain damage and injury mechanism. All patients' brains were imaged by Tc-ECD single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), before and 1 hour after treatment with 10 mg of zolpidem. Simultaneously, 3 quantitative indicators of brain function and damage were obtained using cerebral state monitor...

Escitalopram (ESC) is a new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) used in the treatment of depression. There are limited data regarding accidental and intentional ESC exposure. We conducted a retrospective chart review of isolated ESC ingestions reported to our regional poison center during 2003-2004. Twenty-eight patients met inclusion criteria. The average patient age was 28.1 years (range 2-75 years) and the average amount of ESC ingested was 62.5 mg (range 5-300 mg from 19 cases). The most common formulation ingested was the 20-mg tablet...

IMPORTANCE: Medical treatment settings such as emergency departments (EDs) present important opportunities to address problematic substance use. Currently, EDs do not typically intervene beyond acute medical stabilization. OBJECTIVE: To contrast the effects of a brief intervention with telephone boosters (BI-B) with those of screening, assessment, and referral to treatment (SAR) and minimal screening only (MSO) among drug-using ED patients. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Between October 2010 and February 2012, 1285 adult ED patients from 6 US academic hospitals, who scored 3 or greater on the 10-item Drug Abuse Screening Test (indicating moderate to severe problems related to drug use) and who were currently using drugs, were randomized to MSO (n = 431), SAR (n = 427), or BI-B (n = 427)...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of antipsychotics on the corrected QT (QTc) interval in youth. METHOD: We searched PubMed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed) for randomized or open clinical trials of antipsychotics in youth <18 years with QTc data, meta-analyzing the results. Meta-regression analyses evaluated the effect of age, sex, dose, and study duration on QTc. Incidences of study-defined QTc prolongation (>440-470 milliseconds), QTc >500 milliseconds, and QTc change >60 milliseconds were also evaluated...

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is often considered to be a precipitating factor for diabetic coma, such as a hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state (HHS). The combination of NMS and a systemic illness such as HHS can be difficult to diagnose because NMS may mask the coexisting condition. Although this coexistence is rare, it may be fatal if not detected early. We report a case of HHS in a 47-year-old male patient that developed after the distinguishing features of NMS had subsided. After the diagnosis of HHS, his recovery was a result of intravenous administration of soluble human insulin and fluid supplementation...

Pharmacological management of neurobehavioral disorders following traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common practice. However, the evidence available to guide this practice remains sparse. This review summarizes, in brief, the state of knowledge, organized via a time continuum from injury as well as by symptom complex. The areas of neuroprotection, hypo-arousal, attention and memory deficits, aggression, agitation, depression, and mania are reviewed. The literature was searched with PubMed on the terms "traumatic brain injury" or "brain injury" with "pharmacology" (and the symptoms according to which this review is arranged)...

Acute agitation occurs in a variety of medical and psychiatric conditions, and when severe can result in behavioural dyscontrol. Rapid tranquillisation is the assertive use of medication to calm severely agitated patients quickly, decrease dangerous behaviour and allow treatment of the underlying condition. Intramuscular injections of typical antipsychotics and benzodiazepines, given alone or in combination, have been the treatment of choice over the past few decades. Haloperidol and lorazepam are the most widely used agents for acute agitation, are effective in a wide diagnostic arena and can be used in medically compromised patients...

BACKGROUND: The literature describing the health services individuals receive before and following self-directed violence (SDV) is limited. OBJECTIVES: This study examines services received for the 6 months preceding admission to an urban county medical center emergency department (ED) for SDV. We predicted that individuals with at least 1 prior act of SDV in the past 6 months would have received more services than those for whom the index admission was their only recent act...

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Priapism is a urologic emergency defined as a prolonged, possibly painful, penile erection. There are several known causes of priapism including psychotropic medications. One of the mechanisms by which antipsychotics are believed to induce priapism is through alpha-1 antagonism. This is case of a 50-year-old male with a history of schizophrenia with previous priapism related to trazodone, who presents with new onset priapism associated with risperidone. In this case, the treatment of priapism includes discontinuation of the offending agent and drainage of the corpus cavernosum twice along with intracavernosal phenylephrine injections...

BACKGROUND: In September 2007, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) strengthened label warnings for intravenous (IV) haloperidol regarding QT prolongation (QTP) and torsades de pointes (TdP) in response to adverse event reports. Considering the widespread use of IV haloperidol in the management of acute delirium, the specific FDA recommendation of continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring in this setting has been associated with some controversy. We reviewed the evidence for the FDA warning and provide a potential medical center response to this warning...

BACKGROUND: There has been a paradigm shift in the manifestation of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), with steadily decreasing rates of ventricular fibrillation/tachycardia (VF/VT) and a significant increase in the proportion of pulseless electrical activity (PEA) and asystole. OBJECTIVE: Since PEA is marked by failure of myocardial contractility, we evaluated the potential role of drugs that affect cardiac contractility in the pathophysiology of human PEA. METHODS: Subjects with out-of-hospital SCA (aged≥18 years) who underwent attempted resuscitation were evaluated in the ongoing Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study (2002-2009)...

A boxer's fracture (BF) is the most common type of metacarpal fracture and is usually an intentional injury. This study aims to investigate the severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms and evaluate the personality features of patients with BF in comparison with patients with fractures other than boxer's fractures [other fractures (OFs)] and a group of healthy controls (C). The study group was comprised of 14 patients who were diagnosed to have BF, 13 patients who were assessed due to OF and 11 C. Patients and controls were assessed with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)...

BACKGROUND: Serotonin syndrome (SS) and neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) are uncommon but potentially life-threatening adverse reactions associated with psychotropic medications. Polypharmacy and the similar presentation of SS and NMS make diagnosis of the 2 syndromes problematic. METHODS: A MEDLINE search was performed for the period 1960 to 2011 for case reports, review articles, and studies pertaining to SS and NMS. RESULTS: The majority of available literature on SS and NMS consists of case reports, case-control studies, and retrospective reviews...

OBJECTIVES AND BACKGROUND: Elderly patients comprise an ever-increasing proportion of major trauma patients. The presenting GCS in elderly patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) may not reflect the severity of injury as accurately as it does in the younger patient population. However, GCS is often used as part of the decision tool to define the population transferred directly to a major trauma centre. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between age and presenting GCS in patients with isolated TBI...

We review the literature on management of psychosis and agitation in medical-surgical patients who have or are at risk for prolonged QT interval, a risk factor for torsade de pointes (TdP), and we describe our protocols for treating these patients. We searched PubMed and PsycInfo for relevant studies and found few papers describing options for treating psychosis and agitation in these patients. Prolonged QTc interval has been more often associated with low-potency phenothiazines such as thioridazine; however, it may occur with high potency typical antipsychotics such as fluphenazine and haloperidol as well as with atypical antipsychotics such as quetiapine, risperidone, olanzapine, iloperidone, and particularly ziprasidone...

INTRODUCTION: Health care costs continue to rise; reducing unnecessary laboratory testing may reduce costs. The goal of this study was to calculate the frequency and estimated costs of repeat normal laboratory testing of patients transferred to a tertiary care emergency department (ED). METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients transferred to a tertiary care, level -one trauma ED with an annual census of 90,000 patients. We defined "repeat normal testing" as laboratory tests repeated within 8 hours that were normal at both the sending hospital and the receiving tertiary care hospital...