Agitation in the elderly in the emergency department .

Abstract

The current trend of population growth in the elderly population presents a challenge for psychiatric health care. Psychomotor agitation is a heterogeneous and relatively common clinical picture in psychiatric emergency. It is a broad concept encompassing several states. The etiology can be varied in particular medical, psychiatric and mixed situations. The psychiatrist should be aware of and sensitized to the high prevalence of organic etiology of these pictures. Medication for agitation, although commonly used, should not be regarded as long-term therapy. Non-pharmacological measures to reduce agitation should always be ensured. In this context, the authors found it pertinent to carry out a retrospective documentary study based on the analysis of 252 emergency episodes in patients aged 65 years and over who used the psychiatric emergency of CHMT-Tomar Unit in a period of 3 months. In this sample, 66 episodes (26.2%) of emergency were in the context of psychomotor agitation. The sample was characterized in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, etiology, therapeutics, referral and other variables that we considered relevant (44 variables) with results relevant to clinical practice in Psychiatry.

Keywords

• Agitation
• Elderly
• Emergency
• Psychopharmacology
• Psychiatry
• Psychogeriatrics