Psychiatric emergency "surge capacity" following acts of terrorism and mass violence with high media impact: what is required?

Objective: Adequate preparedness for acts of terrorism and mass violence requires a thorough understanding of the postdisaster mental health needs of all exposed groups, including those watching such events from a distance. This study examined emergency psychiatric treatment-seeking patterns following media exposure to four national terrorist or mass casualty events.

Method: An event was selected for study if (a) it precipitated local front-page headlines for >5 consecutive days and (b) emergency service psychiatrists identified it as specifically precipitating help-seeking in the study hospital.

The Psychiatric Emergency Research Collaboration-01: methods and results.

Objective: To describe the Psychiatric Emergency Research Collaboration (PERC), the methods used to create a structured chart review tool and the results of our multicenter study.

Method: Members of the PERC Steering Committee created a structured chart review tool designed to provide a comprehensive picture of the assessment and management of psychiatric emergency patients. Ten primary indicators were chosen based on the Steering Committee's professional experience, the published literature and existing consensus panel guidelines.

Telephone-based assessments to minimize missing data in longitudinal depression trials: a project IMPACTS study report.

Purpose: Missing data in clinical efficacy and effectiveness trials continue to be a major threat to the validity of study findings. The purpose of this report is to describe methods developed to ensure completion of outcome assessments with public mental health sector subjects participating in a longitudinal, repeated measures study for the treatment of major depressive disorder. We developed longitudinal assessment procedures that included telephone-based clinician interviews in order to minimize missing data commonly encountered with face-to-face assessment procedures.

Trends in emergency department use of gastric lavage for poisoning events in the United States, 1993-2003.

Objective: To determine current trends in the use of gastric decontamination for the emergency department (ED) treatment of overdose patients.

Methods: In the National Health Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS), a weighted sampling of U.S.