Introduction: Patients with mental illness are particularly at risk for OUD, and due to this higher risk, providers may be more inclined to withhold their home opioids when they are admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Patients whose home opioids are continued or withheld during admission may be treated differently with respect to pain control, orders for nonopioid adjunctive pain agents, orders for intramuscular as-needed medications, orders for seclusion and/or restraints, and outpatient referrals for OUD treatment. The objective of this retrospective pilot study was to characterize inpatient care for these 2 patient populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is considered a common cause of mental status changes, particularly in elderly patients and patients with a psychiatric condition. Genitourinary symptoms are essential to confirm UTI diagnosis but may be unobtainable in patients with a communication barrier. Sparse guidance suggests assessing specific symptoms that do not rely on patient report.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Differentiating between a urinary tract infection and asymptomatic bacteriuria is an important distinction to make, especially in noncommunicative patients. An algorithm meant to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections in this population was implemented within a psychiatric emergency department in January 2019. The primary objective of this project was to assess the impact of the algorithm (the ) regarding symptom documentation and antibiotic use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvidence regarding the use of antipsychotics and associated venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk is inconclusive. Studies finding a relationship lack in-depth analysis; thus, the VTE risk among those treated with antipsychotic remains largely unknown. The primary objective of this investigation was to compare the incidence of antipsychotic use in patients who developed a VTE versus those who did not.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis is not included among the measures for the Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Quality Reporting Program. Evidence suggests that antipsychotic agents may be an independent risk factor for the development of VTE; therefore, development of a VTE risk stratification tool would improve the quality and safety of care for the psychiatric inpatient population. This study aims to develop clinically relevant criteria to assess VTE risk upon admission to an inpatient psychiatric hospital.
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