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KMID : 0377619830450010013
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Korean Jungang Medical Journal
1983 Volume.45 No. 1 p.13 ~ p.15
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Psychiatric Emergencies
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Abstract
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Instances occur when psychiatric symptoms fail to stabilize the crisis situation. At .such, times, the patient´s psychological state may deteriorate rapidly and confront
,the evaluator with a psychiatric emergency. The patient experiences the emergency´ -as an unexpected, acutely painful state; he is unable to overcome it and to return to his previous state of emotional equilibrium. The clinician and not the patient himself For his family or friends-is best able to evaluate the presenting problems and decide whether or not they constitute a psychiatric emergency.
Psychiatric emergencies are characterized by grossly abnormal behavior of four .main types; (1) self-destructive behavior; (2) destructive and sometimes homicidal behavior directed toward others (seen in some patients in acute psychotic, paranoid, :panic, or depressive states, in certan patients with chronic brain syndromes, and in those in postconvulsive states) ; (3) severe deliria or intoxications caused by drugs or alcohol; (4) panic states resulting from latent homosexual, hysterical, or hypo-chondriacal reactions (Wayne, 1966).
These psychiatric emergencies result from the patient´s use of maladaptive reac-tions in a desperate attempt to overcome a deepening psychological crisis and to reg-ain his earlier state of psychological equilibrium. Because such efforts usually fail, the patient becomes enmeshed in a. progressively more restrictive psychological net. Under these circumstances, the patient frequently considers an attempt at suicide to be the only action open to him.
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