Chanmugam Arjun, Triplett Patrick, Kelen Gabor. Emergency Psychiatry

Cambridge University Press, 2013. — 322 p.Emergency Psychiatry is designed for health care providers who may manage patients with acute psychiatric problems or wish to better understand the fundamentals of urgent psychiatric conditions. This concise but practical reference focuses on the management of patients who are thought to be suffering from an acute psychiatric ailment or crisis. The authors are experts in their field, and the editorial team each has considerable clinical experience in emergency psychiatric evaluation and care, including the inherent difficulties associated with many of the conditions and the superimposition of social contexts.
Our goal was to provide a review of the key issues in psychiatry in a comprehensive but succinct format. Although many of the issues discussed in this book are complex and deserving of a more detailed discussion, our primary concern was to provide a review that will help guide practical acute management. Psychiatric conditions are, by their very nature, challenging to manage, but with a good understanding of the pathology and the appropriate resources, patients can be effectively cared for in the acute setting. The editors understand that in some cases, adequate resources for psychiatric patients may be wanting or scarce; it was in fact that very realization which compelled us to create a reference to assist the acute care provider in stabilizing and managing the patient with an acute presentation of psychiatric illness.
Emergency psychiatry is a nascent subspecialty of both psychiatry and emergency medicine. However, many fields of medicine are called on to recognize and manage patients with acute psychiatric conditions and to appreciate the impact these conditions have on other clinical and social conditions. We hope that this book may help to better serve patients and providers and in the process to promote increased recognition of the importance of emergency psychiatry.Assessment and general approach
Management of agitation and violence
Suicide assessments
Managing substance abuse in the acute setting
Psychosis
The delirious patient
The anxious patient
Mood disorders
Personality disorders
Legal issues in the care of psychiatric patients in the emergency department
Geriatric psychiatry
Issues in pediatric psychiatric emergency care
The evaluation of intellectual and developmental disabilities
Emergency management of eating disorders
The acute management of patients with psychiatric complications of chronic illness or chronic pain
Death and dying
The emergency management of women with psychiatric illness
The impact of culture on the acute management of psychiatric illness
Understanding the psychology of difficult patients