The acute management of agitation
Bakay, S.; Iweins, A.; Scantamburlo, G.; Ansseau, M.; Pitchot, W.
Revue Medicale de Liege 68(11): 553-556
2013
ISSN/ISBN: 0370-629X PMID: 24396967 Document Number: 667239
Agitation in psychiatry is defined as "a request to which an answer cannot be deferred". If some types of controllable agitation can be solved by human means or psychotropic drugs, others may require the intervention of intensivists who will contribute to the onset of crisis resolution. In addition, an organic aetiology must be carefully excluded a before considering a psychiatric origin of agitation, especially in patients with no psychiatric history and in the elderly. Indeed, acute agitation can hide serious somatic traps and be life threatening.