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Intensive care in psychiatry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

D. Winkler ,
A. Naderi-Heiden ,
A. Strnad ,
E. Pjrek ,
J. Scharfetter ,
S. Kasper  and
R. Frey
D. Winkler
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
A. Naderi-Heiden
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
A. Strnad
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
E. Pjrek
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
J. Scharfetter
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Social Medical Center East, Vienna, Austria
S. Kasper
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
R. Frey*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090 Vienna, Austria
*
⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 1 40400 3537; fax: +43 1 40400 3099. E-mail address: [email protected] (R. Frey).
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Abstract

Psychiatric intensive care is supposed to offer treatment and to hold patients with psychiatric illness, if they pose a threat to themselves or to others. Besides treating the underlying psychiatric diagnoses, it is also necessary to take care of severe somatic comorbidity, which is often impeded by patients’ limited ability to cooperate. Treatment often requires the administration of sedative medication and occasionally the use of medical restraints. Involuntary commitment, involuntary treatment and the usage of physical restraints is regulated by national mental health laws. Medical professionals working in the field of psychiatric intensive care must have expert knowledge in the fields of psychopharmacology and intensive care medicine. Treatment concepts should be aimed to provide optimized care for psychiatric inpatients in a potentially life-threatening phase of their illness. This article outlines current clinical practice at the psychiatric intensive care unit of the Medical University of Vienna (Austria). Furthermore, we present diagnoses, diagnostic procedures and specific treatments of a sample of 100 consecutive inpatients treated in the years 2008 and 2009 at this ward.

Keywords

Mental health servicesPsychiatryIntensive carePsychopharmacologyInvoluntary treatment
Type
Original article
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , May 2011 , pp. 260 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2011

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