[Diagnostic revision of De Chiricos' case].

An interesting field of psychopathology has been historically oriented towards identifying the links between artistic expression and psychological problems, searching the biographies of various artists for the deep psychological origins of their art. The painter Giorgio De Chirico has been the object of many studies and recently his documented suffering was diagnosed as problems with migraines and temporal epilepsy. However, a precise psychiatric diagnosis is still missing.

Factors related to admission of psychiatric patients to medical wards from the general hospital emergency department: a 3-year study of urgent psychiatric consultations.

Objective: Emergency Rooms (ER) of Emergency Departments (ED) in General Hospitals (GH) have a role in providing for psychiatric evaluation. The aims of the present study were to examine the decision-making process of consultation psychiatry at the GH-ER and to analyze the differences between psychiatric patients admitted to a medical ward with those admitted to the psychiatry unit and those who are discharged from the ER.

Method: Over a period of 3 years, psychiatric consultations requested by ER of ED physicians to the GH Psychiatric service were recorded by using a form to describe epidemiological and clinical data on the consultation process.

Violence in psychiatric units: a 7-year Italian study of persistently assaultive patients.

Background: The problem of violence and aggressive behaviour among patients with psychiatric disorders need careful assessment to improve the quality of psychiatric care. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of repeated episodes of violence among patients admitted to an Italian psychiatric ward.

Methods: All violent behaviours, which occurred in a 15-bed psychiatric inpatient unit over a 7-year period, were assessed by using the Staff Observation Aggression scale (SOAS).