Behavioral Emergencies

When hostile, aggressive patients are interviewed, staff safety must be considered. Most hospitals have a policy to search for weapons (manually, with metal detectors, or both) on patients presenting with disordered behavior. When possible, patients should be assessed in an area with safety features such as security cameras, metal detectors, and interview rooms that are visible to staff members.

Patients who are hostile but not yet violent typically do not assault staff members randomly; rather, they assault staff members who anger or appear threatening to them. Doors to rooms should be left open. Staff members may also avoid appearing threatening by sitting on the same level as patients. Staff members may avoid angering patients by not responding to their hostility in kind, with loud, angry remarks or arguing. If patients nonetheless become increasingly agitated and violence appears impending, staff members should simply leave the room and summon sufficient additional staff to provide a show of force, which sometimes deters patients. Typically, at least 4 or 5 people should be present (some preferably young and male). However, the team should not bring restraints into the room unless they are definitely to be applied; seeing restraints may further agitate patients.

Verbal threats must be taken seriously. In most states, when a patient expresses the intention to harm a particular person, the evaluating physician is required to warn the intended victim and to notify a specified law enforcement agency. Specific requirements vary by state. Typically, state regulations also require reporting of suspected abuse of children, older people, and spouses.

Restraints should be applied only by staff members adequately trained in correct techniques and in protecting patient rights and safety.

First, adequate staff are assembled in the room, and patients are informed that restraints must be applied. Patients are encouraged to cooperate to avoid a struggle. However, once the clinician has determined that restraints are necessary, there is no negotiation, and patients are told that restraints will be applied whether or not they agree. Some actually understand and appreciate having external limits on their behavior.

In preparation for applying restraints, one person is assigned to each extremity and another to the patient’s head. Then, each person simultaneously grasps their assigned extremity and places the patient supine on the bed; one physically fit person can typically control a single extremity of even large, violent patients (provided all extremities are grasped at the same time). However, an additional person is needed to apply the restraints. Rarely, upright patients who are extremely combative may first need to be sandwiched between 2 mattresses.

Leather restraints are preferred. One restraint is applied to each ankle and wrist and attached to the bed frame, not the rail. Restraints are not applied around the chest, neck, or head, and gags (eg, to prevent spitting and swearing) are forbidden. Patients who remain combative in restraints (eg, attempting to upset the stretcher, bite, or spit) may require chemical restraint.

Agitated or violent people brought to the hospital by police are almost always in restraints (eg, handcuffs). Occasionally, young, healthy people have died in police restraints before or shortly after hospital arrival. The cause is often unclear but probably involves some combination of overexertion with subsequent metabolic derangement and hyperthermia, drug use, aspiration of stomach contents into the respiratory system, embolism in people left in restraints for a long time, and occasionally serious underlying medical disorders. Death is more likely if people are restrained in the hobble position, with one or both wrists shackled to the ankles behind their back; this type of restraint may cause asphyxia and should be avoided. Because of these complications, violent patients presenting in police custody should be evaluated promptly and thoroughly and not dismissed as mere sociobehavioral problems.

Patients can usually be rapidly calmed or tranquilized using

These drugs are better titrated and act more rapidly and reliably when administered IV (see table Drug Therapy for Agitated or Violent Patients Drug Therapy for Agitated or Violent Patients ), but IM administration may be necessary when IV access cannot be achieved in struggling patients. Both classes of drug are effective sedatives for agitated, violent patients. Benzodiazepines are probably preferred for stimulant drug overdoses and for alcohol and benzodiazepine drug withdrawal syndromes, and antipsychotics are preferred for clear exacerbations of known mental disorders. Sometimes a combination of both drugs is more effective; when large doses of one drug have not had the full desired effect, using another drug class instead of continuing to increase the dose of the first drug may limit adverse effects.

Parenteral benzodiazepines, particularly in the doses sometimes needed for extremely violent patients, may cause respiratory depression. Airway management Airway Establishment and Control Airway management consists of Clearing the upper airway Maintaining an open air passage with a mechanical device Sometimes assisting respirations (See also Overview of Respiratory Arrest.) read more with intubation and assisted ventilation may be required. The benzodiazepine antagonist, flumazenil, may be used, but caution is required because if sedation is significantly reversed, the original behavioral problem may reappear.

Benzodiazepines sometimes lead to further disinhibition of behavior.

Antipsychotics, particularly dopamine-receptor antagonists, at therapeutic as well as toxic doses, can have acute extrapyramidal adverse effects (see table Treatment of Acute Adverse Effects of Antipsychotics Treatment of Acute Adverse Effects of Antipsychotics ), including acute dystonia and akathisia (an unpleasant sensation of motor restlessness). These adverse effects may be dose dependent and may resolve once the drug is stopped.

Several antipsychotics, including thioridazine, haloperidol, droperidol, olanzapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone, can cause long QT interval syndrome and ultimately increase the risk of fatal arrhythmias. Neuroleptic malignant syndrome Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome Neuroleptic malignant syndrome is characterized by altered mental status, muscle rigidity, hyperthermia, and autonomic hyperactivity that occur when certain neuroleptic drugs are used. Clinically... read more is also a possibility.

For other adverse effects, see Adverse effects of antipsychotic drugs Adverse effects of antipsychotic drugs Antipsychotic drugs are divided into conventional antipsychotics and 2nd-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) based on their specific neurotransmitter receptor affinity and activity. SGAs may offer... read more .

If patients refuse hospitalization, the physician must decide whether to hold them against their will. Doing so may be necessary to ensure the immediate safety of the patient or of others or to allow completion of an assessment and implementation of treatment.

Criteria and procedures for involuntary hospitalization vary by jurisdiction. Usually, involuntary hospitalization requires a physician or psychologist and one additional clinician, family member, or close contact to certify that the patient has a mental disorder, is a danger to self or to others, and refuses voluntary treatment. Physicians should obtain consent to drug treatment of minor children from parents or guardians.

Danger to self includes but is not limited to

In most jurisdictions, knowledge of intent to commit suicide requires a health care practitioner to act immediately to prevent the suicide, for example, by notifying the police or another responsible agency.

Danger to others includes