This volume provides an “on-the-go” guide to the most common behavioral emergencies a physician may encounter. Each chapter represents a disease state or symptom cluster and concisely summarizes the disease state, provides background, symptoms and signs, differential diagnoses, and immediate and long-term treatment options. All chapters conclude with a diagnosis or treatment algorithm or another easy-to-use visual tool. Chapters named after a specific disease state or symptom cluster, arranged alphabetically for use in the field. The text begins with chapters covering patient evaluation: getting a good history, suicide risk assessment, physical exam, and when and how to use studies. Written by experts in psychiatry and emergency medicine, this text is the first to consider both medical perspectives in a concise guide. Quick Guide to Psychiatric Emergencies is an excellent resource for psychiatrists, emergency medicine physicians, residents, nurses, and other medical professionals that handle behavioral emergencies on a regular basis.

This is a quick reference book for the management of psychiatric medical emergencies. The book is aimed at practicing psychiatrists, residents, students, social workers, nurses and any other mental health professsional in the accident and emergency department.

This handbook is a practical, quick-reference guide to the evaluation and management of acute psychiatric symptoms seen in emergency departments and inpatient psychiatric and medical-surgical units. The book presents a step-by-step approach to each symptom, beginning with a list of questions necessary for initial assessment and proceeding to psychopharmacologic interventions, DSM-IV-TR criteria, differential diagnosis, and disposition guidelines. Additional chapters address safety concerns, the mental status examination, use of restraints and seclusion, child and elder abuse, and special needs of children, adolescents, geriatric patients, mentally retarded individuals, and patients with HIV. A chapter on legal and forensic issues is also included.

This fully updated second edition focuses on mental illness, both globally and in terms of specific mental-health-related visits encountered in emergency department settings, and provides practical input from physicians experienced with adult emergency psychiatric patients. It covers the pre-hospital setting and advising on evidence-based practice; from collaborating with psychiatric colleagues to establishing a psychiatric service in your emergency department. Potential dilemmas when treating pregnant, geriatric or homeless patients with mental illness are discussed in detail, along with the more challenging behavioral diagnoses such as substance abuse, factitious and personality disorders, delirium, dementia, and PTSD. The new edition of Behavioral Emergencies for Healthcare Providers will be an invaluable resource for psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric and emergency department nurses, trainee and experienced emergency physicians, and other mental health workers.

This user-friendly resource presents a patient-centered approach to managing the growing incidence of major psychiatric emergencies in the outpatient setting. Abundant illustrations, tables, and algorithms guide you through the wide range of disorders discussed, and a color-coded outline format facilitates rapid access to essential information necessary for making a proper diagnosis for optimal management outcomes. Organizes information by patient presentation to help you distinguish among conditions that present with similar symptoms. Discusses medical conditions presenting with psychiatric symptoms, where appropriate. Highlights critical information in "Hazard Signs" boxes for quick, at-a-glance review. Uses acronyms and memory aids to enhance recall of information in moments of crisis. Features a chapter discussing the psychiatric effects of bioterrorism. Offers an Improved Suicide Risk Scale with criteria on impulsivity, plan, and lethal level of attempt. Provides valuable tips on interviewing and interacting with patients in various situations, as techniques will vary from depressed suicidal patients to manic and potentially assaultive individuals. Includes appendixes that discuss common psychiatric medications used and important lab values in the ER.

Working in an emergency department as a psychiatrist or mental health clinician requires an ability to gain a patient's rapport, establish a differential diagnosis, assess risk and make disposition decisions in a fast-paced and potentially chaotic setting. Patients may be medically ill, agitated, intoxicated, or suicidal, and resources for treatment may be difficult to access. A Case-Based Approach to Emergency Psychiatry provides the emergency department clinician with vivid and complex cases, discussed by psychiatrists who work daily in the emergency setting, that illustrate basic principles of assessment, diagnosis and treatment. These challenging and complex cases are based on the years of experience of the authors combined with current evidence-based practices and discussion. Risk assessment, psychosis, mood disorder, substance abuse, ethics, forensic issues, and personality disorders are discussed, along with child and adolescent, geriatric, and developmental disabilities. Special attention is also paid to alternatives to inpatient care, short-term crisis intervention, and the interface between medical and psychiatric illnesses. The case-based format allows the authors to link aspects of the clinical presentation to discussion and literature review in a memorable and compelling format.

Helping Kids in Crisis: Managing Psychiatric Emergencies in Children and Adolescents is a practical, easy-to-use guide for clinicians working with child and adolescent psychiatric emergencies across a range of settings -- from emergency rooms to schools to community pediatric or mental health clinics. More and more children struggle with psychiatric symptoms, while access to treatment remains limited, so pediatricians, social workers, school psychologists, guidance counselors, and school nurses often find themselves treating kids in crisis without available child psychiatric consultation. These crises are high-risk, high-liability situations that are often dangerous and intimidating. This book provides clinical case examples with concrete tools for assessment, de-escalation, and diagnosis, to help clinicians quickly stabilize the crisis and determine when a trip to the emergency room is necessary. Pragmatic and accessible, Helping Kids in Crisis: Managing Psychiatric Emergencies in Children and Adolescents provides the up-to-date tools and clinical guidance that practitioners in hospital and community-based settings need to intervene effectively, relieve suffering, and keep their young patients safe.