Psychiatric Emergency

Hello everyone...how you all are doing?....hope everything is safe and sound!😃

Today I am here to talk about a very interesting yet not so acquainted area in the field of Psychology...so seat back and enjoy reading😀

Let's define "emergency" first....so what is emergency???...to me, emergency is a situation where one should act respect to that situation immediately; you guys can leave your thoughts on this in the comment section!

An emergency is defined as an unforeseen combination of circumstances which calls for an immediate action..

A Medical emergency is defined as a medical condition which endangers life and/or causes great suffering to the individual.

 

Now what is Psychiatric emergency?? - it is a disturbance in thought, mood and/or action which causes sudden distress to the individual (or to significant others) and/or sudden disability, thus requiring immediate management. A similar term Crisis means a situation that presents a challenge to the patient, the family and/or the community.

Types of Psychiatric Emergencies

A psychiatric emergency can be one or more of the following -

• A new psychiatric disorder with an acute onset.
• A chronic psychiatric disorder with a relapse.
• An organic psychiatric disorder.
• An abnormal response to a stressful situation.
• Iatrogenic Emergencies :

1. Side effects or toxicity of psychotropic medications.
2. Psychiatric symptomatology as a side effect or toxicity of other medications.

• Alcohol or drug dependence :

1. Withdrawal syndrome.
2. Intoxication or overdose.
3. Complications.

• Deliberate harm to self or others.

Some Common Psychiatric Emergencies

Suicide :

Suicide is a type of deliberate self-harm (DSH); an act of intentionally injuring oneself, irrespective of the actual outcome. It is the commonest cause of death among the psychiatric patients. Psychiatric disorders are a major cause of suicide, for example - Depression, Alcoholism and Drug dependence, Schizophrenia.

Suicide is among the top 10 causes of death in India and most other countries. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB, 2008), in India, the commonest modes or methods of committing suicide are ingestion of Poison (34.8%), followed by hanging (32.2%), burning (about 8.8%), drowning (about 6.7%), jumping in front of another vehicle (3%), and alcoholism (1.2%).

But there are some misconceptions about suicide as well :

1. People who talk about suicide, do not commit suicide; but in reality, nearly 80% of persons who commit suicide, give definite warnings and/or clues about their suicidal intentions.
2. Once a person is suicidal, he/she is suicidal forever; but the fact is suicidal person is usually suicidal only for a limited period of time.
3. All suicidal persons are mentally ill or psychotic; but the truth is, although a suicidal person is often extremely unhappy, he/she is not necessarily mentally ill.

Here are some steps for preventing suicide include :

1. Take all the suicidal threats, gestures and/or attempts seriously and notify a psychiatrist or a mental health professional.
2. Psychiatrist (or a mental health professional) should quantify the seriousness of the situation (a proper risk assessment) and take remedial precautionary measures.
3. Acute psychiatric emergency interview.
4. Counselling and guidance as in to deal with the desire to attempt suicide, to deal with on-going life stressors and teaching coping skills and interpersonal skills.
5. Treatment of the psychiatric disorders with medication, psychotherapy.

The list of possible psychiatric emergencies is long. A few psychiatric emergencies are Severe Depression, Psychiatric complications of Medical and Surgical diseases, Severe Insomnia, Panic disorder etc.

Psychiatric patients especially when excited or emotionally disturbed, often arouse anxiety in the treating physicians as well as other patients in the casualty. So, it is necessary to have an emergency psychiatry room or psychiatric holding area near the casualty, where the patients can be interviewed and treated. An ideal place for treating psychiatric emergencies is a separate 'Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit' (PICU) or 'Crisis Intervention Centre' (CIC) attached to a psychiatric unit in a general hospital or to a psychiatric hospital or nursing home.

That's all for today guys!!....hope you find it helpful as well as informative...

See you in the next post...till then read and relax and most importantly stay safe😃

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~ Mousumi Gayen