Updates in the Assessment and Management of Agitation.

Agitated patients can be dangerous to themselves and others. In fact, severe medical complications and death can occur with severe agitation. Because of this, agitation is considered a medical and psychiatric emergency.

A Direct Observation Form for Evaluation of the Psychiatric Interview: Pilot Testing During the Psychiatry Clerkship.

Objectives: The authors evaluated the validity of a structured direct observation form (DOF) to assess medical student performance on psychiatric interviews for use in the psychiatry clerkship.

Methods: One hundred and forty-eight third-year medical students were evaluated by two DOFs completed by a supervising resident, fellow, attending, or another team member. One DOF was completed early (time 1) and the other late (time 2) during a 4-week psychiatry clerkship.

Adapting a first- and second-year medical student psychiatric interview course for virtual learning.

: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a first- and second-year psychiatric interviewing course was converted to a virtual platform with interviews performed via video conferencing. Telepsychiatry has been shown to be an effective modality for patient care, but little is known about the effectiveness of using this modality to teach the psychiatric interview. We sought to examine how switching to remote learning would affect the quality of the course.

Limitations of Traditional Models for Medical Decision-Making Capacity and Ethical Clinical Practice in Light of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has upended psychiatric practice and poses unprecedented challenges for maintaining access to quality care. We discuss the ethical challenges of treating a patient with schizophrenia in need of hospitalization but who declined severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) surveillance testing. The traditional framework of capacity assessment depends on the patient's ability to weigh risks and benefits, but this framework is of limited utility in context of the COVID-19 pandemic; the personal benefits of testing for the patient are unclear and in fact may not outweigh the risk of being declined psychiatric care.

Management of Alcohol Withdrawal in the Emergency Department: Current Perspectives.

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is a common, heterogenous, and life-threatening complication of alcohol use disorder (AUD). AUD is a leading cause of worldwide mortality, and many patients with AUD will develop AWS during their ED course. This review summarizes the epidemiology, pathology, and management of AWS and AUD in the emergency setting.