The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline for the Pharmacological Treatment of Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder.

(Reprinted with permission from .

Psychiatric Outcomes of Patients With Severe Agitation Following Administration of Prehospital Ketamine.

Background: Ketamine is an emerging drug used in the management of undifferentiated, severe agitation in the prehospital setting. However, prior work has indicated that ketamine may exacerbate psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. The objective of this study was to describe psychiatric outcomes in patients who receive prehospital ketamine for severe agitation.

The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline on the Use of Antipsychotics to Treat Agitation or Psychosis in Patients With Dementia.

(Reprinted with permission from 2016; 173:543-546).

The Peregrinating Psychiatric Patient in the Emergency Department.

Many emergency department (ED) psychiatric patients present after traveling. Although such travel, or peregrination, has long been associated with factitious disorder, other diagnoses are more common among travelers, including psychotic disorders, personality disorders, and substance abuse. Travelers' intense psychopathology, disrupted social networks, lack of collateral informants, and unawareness of local resources complicate treatment.

Who's boarding in the psychiatric emergency service?

Introduction: When a psychiatric patient in the emergency department requires inpatient admission, but no bed is available, they may become a "boarder." The psychiatric emergency service (PES) has been suggested as one means to reduce psychiatric boarding, but the frequency and characteristics of adult PES boarders have not been described.

Methods: We electronically extracted electronic medical records for adult patients presenting to the PES in an urban county safety-net hospital over 12 months.

Risk for physical restraint or seclusion in the psychiatric emergency service (PES).

Objective: We describe risk factors associated with patients experiencing physical restraint or seclusion in the psychiatric emergency service (PES).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records, nursing logs and quality assurance data for all adult patient encounters in a PES over a 12-month period (June 1, 2011-May 31, 2012). Descriptors included demographic characteristics, diagnoses, laboratory values, and clinician ratings of symptom severity.

"Excessive tears": a diagnostic sign for cocaine-induced mood disorder?

Objective: This study aims to investigate excessive tearfulness as a sign to help determine the etiology of depressive symptoms.

Methods: Clinicians were instructed to document the occurrence of excessive tearfulness in all patients seen in the Psychiatric Emergency Service. Excessive tearfulness was defined as crying to the severity that at least 1 tear drops off the face.

High utilizers of psychiatric emergency services.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of high utilizers of psychiatric emergency services.

Methods: Data were collected over four years for 761 patients who were identified as high utilizers according to three definitions (two standard deviations above the mean number of visits to an urban psychiatric emergency service, six visits in a year, and four visits in a quarter) and for 1,585 nonfrequent utilizers (control group). Univariate analysis of variance and logistic regression models were used to determine group differences.

Lack of depression effect on platelet activation in patients with heart failure.

P-selectin is a marker of platelet activation. Previous studies have reported elevated P-selectin in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and depression as separate disorders. We examined if comorbid depression had an effect on platelet activation in CHF patients.

Cytokines in depression and heart failure.

Objective: There is a convincing body of evidence linking depression, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. There is also growing evidence that depression is a risk factor for congestive heart failure (CHF) and that CHF patients with major depression have higher rates of mortality and repeat hospitalizations. Currently there are no proposed neurobiological or neuroimmune mechanisms for the comorbidity of heart failure and depression.