Emergency psychiatry

Emergency psychiatry is the use of psychiatry in an emergency situation. Examples of such situations include people trying to kill themselves or thinking about it, substance abuse, depression, psychosis, panic attacks, suddenly becoming violent, or people showing other sudden unexplained changes in behaviour.

Treatment is often complex. Many people who are sent to emergency psychiatry often have other mental health issues. They may have gone though a crisis, which triggered the behavior. Very often, people are in a life-threatening condition, or there is a great risk that they gravely harm themselves.

Usually, the idea is to stabilize the patient. Once the patient is stable, he or she can then be transferred to long-term treatment or rehabilitation. There are different drugs and therapies that can be used. Very often, these drugs can be injected. One of the things these drugs usually do is calm the patient down. That way physical restraints need to be used less often in emergency settings.