emergency psychiatry
Clinical teaching and practical ideas for your next study session.
Stimulant-Associated Psychotic Agitation: Treat Both Targets
When psychosis and methamphetamine exposure overlap, rapid tranquilization should not become a one-drug reflex. This case shows how to address acute arousal and psychotic symptoms as separate treatment targets while keeping medical evaluation active.
Suicide Risk After Alcohol Intoxication: Reassess, Don’t Use a BAC Cutoff
A suicidal patient’s later denial after intoxication is new data, not an all-clear. Learn how to structure serial assessment, check the timeline against collateral, and make disposition from the whole picture—not a BAC or screening score.
IPV Disclosures in the ED: Planning a Safe Exit When a Partner Is Waiting
PTSD symptoms do not answer whether a patient can leave safely. Learn an ED approach to privacy, immediate danger, child safety, monitored communication, and a patient-led disposition.
Psychiatry SAQ Strategy: Separate the Hold From the Safety Plan
When an agitated patient refuses voluntary admission, the hardest part of the SAQ is not naming a form. It is showing how capacity, emergency detention, observation, environmental controls, lethal-means restriction, and reassessment fit together without overclaiming what a hold permits.