Characteristics, diagnoses and risk profiles of inpatients readmitted within 28 days of discharge to an Australian private psychiatric hospital.

Objective: The objective of this study was to perform a clinical and risk audit of private hospital inpatients who had been readmitted within 28 days of a preceding admission.

Method: Of 118 readmissions within 28 days in 2017 (7% of all admissions), 50 were randomly selected for audit. Characteristics, illness severity and clinical risk profiles were ascertained at discharge from the index admission and at readmission.

Psychiatric Aspects of Extreme Sports: Three Case Studies.

Extreme sports, defined as sporting or adventure activities involving a high degree of risk, have boomed since the 1990s. These types of sports attract men and women who can experience a life-affirming transcendence or "flow" as they participate in dangerous activities. Extreme sports also may attract people with a genetic predisposition for risk, risk-seeking personality traits, or underlying psychiatric disorders in which impulsivity and risk taking are integral to the underlying problem.

The Clinical and Service Outcomes of Unilateral and Bilateral ECT Electrode Placements in Australian Aged Psychiatry Services.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether depressed aged inpatients treated with brief pulse unilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) differed from those treated with bilateral (bitemporal or bifrontal) ECT with respect to numbers of treatments, length of hospital admission, changes in scores on depression and cognitive scales, and serious adverse effects.

Methods: An audit of routinely collected data regarding 221 acute ECT courses in 7 public aged psychiatry services in Victoria, Australia.

Results: Patients given unilateral, bifrontal, and bitemporal treatments were similar with respect to personal, clinical, and treatment characteristics.

Cognition in elderly patients receiving unilateral and bilateral electroconvulsive therapy: a prospective, naturalistic comparison.

Background: The cognitive side-effects of ECT are minimized by individualized, supra-threshold dosing with brief pulse electrical stimuli. Unilateral ECT is associated with fewer cognitive sequelae but bilateral ECT is possibly more effective. Little is known of the relative effectiveness and tolerability of the two placements in the treatment of elderly, severely depressed inpatients.