Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T22:52:56.254Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intensive care in psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

D. Winkler ,
A. Naderi-Heiden ,
A. Strnad ,
E. Pjrek ,
J. Scharfetter ,
S. Kasper  and
R. Frey
D. Winkler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
A. Naderi-Heiden
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
A. Strnad
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
E. Pjrek
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
J. Scharfetter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Social Medical Center East, Vienna, Austria
S. Kasper
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
R. Frey*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
*
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 1 40400 3537; fax: +43 1 40400 3099. E-mail address: richard.frey@meduniwien.ac.at (R. Frey).
Get access

Abstract

Psychiatric intensive care is supposed to offer treatment and to hold patients with psychiatric illness, if they pose a threat to themselves or to others. Besides treating the underlying psychiatric diagnoses, it is also necessary to take care of severe somatic comorbidity, which is often impeded by patients’ limited ability to cooperate. Treatment often requires the administration of sedative medication and occasionally the use of medical restraints. Involuntary commitment, involuntary treatment and the usage of physical restraints is regulated by national mental health laws. Medical professionals working in the field of psychiatric intensive care must have expert knowledge in the fields of psychopharmacology and intensive care medicine. Treatment concepts should be aimed to provide optimized care for psychiatric inpatients in a potentially life-threatening phase of their illness. This article outlines current clinical practice at the psychiatric intensive care unit of the Medical University of Vienna (Austria). Furthermore, we present diagnoses, diagnostic procedures and specific treatments of a sample of 100 consecutive inpatients treated in the years 2008 and 2009 at this ward.

Keywords

Mental health servicesPsychiatryIntensive carePsychopharmacologyInvoluntary treatment
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , May 2011 , pp. 260 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baghai, T, Frey, R, Kasper, S, Möller, HJ, editors. Elektrokonvulsionstherapie–Klinische und wissenschaftliche Aspekte. Springer: Wien-New York; 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battaglia, JPharmacological management of acute agitation. Drugs 2005; 65: 1207–1222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, N, Boustani, MA, Ayub, A, Fox, GC, Munger, SL, Ott, C, et al.Pharmacological management of delirium in hospitalized adults–a systematic evidence review. J Gen Intern Med 2009; 24: 848–853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dix, RPsychiatric intensive care and low secure units past, present and future – introducing the Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care (Editorial). J Psychiatr Intensive Care 2005; 1: 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friemel, S, Bernert, S, Angermeyer, MC, König, HHThe direct costs of depressive disorders in Germany. Psychiatr Prax 2005; 32: 113–121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gentile, MG, Pastorelli, P, Ciceri, R, Manna, GM, Collimedaglia, SSpecialized refeeding treatment for anorexia nervosa patients suffering from extreme undernutrition. Clin Nutr 2010; 29: 627–632.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldney, R, Bowes, J, Spence, N, Czechowicz, A, Hurley, RThe psychiatric intensive care unit. Br J Psychiatry 1985; 146: 50–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lederbogen, F, Kopf, D, Hewer, WAn interdisciplinary unit for major psychiatric/somatic comorbidity: concept and 22 years of experience. Nervenarzt 2008; 79: 1051–1058.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stapleton, RD, Jones, N, Heyland, DKFeeding critically ill patients: what is the optimal amount of energy? Crit Care Med 2007; 35: S535–S540.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winkler, D, Scharfetter, J, Kasper, S, Frey, RThe Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit: ethically and technically progressive care of somatically and psychiatrically critically ill patients. J Hosp Ethics 2009; 3: 5–8.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.