The Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

The first three and a half years' operation of a psychiatric intensive care unit, based on the general hospital model, is described. This eight-bedded ward focusses on the treatment of the most acutely psychiatrically ill patients, and not on the forensic or custodial aspects of such units previously described. It has gained general acceptance within the setting of a state psychiatric hospital, and has received 1132 admissions since its inception. Demographic, clinical, and treatment data are presented and the advantages and disadvantages of the unit are discussed.

Use of psychotropic medication in seven English psychiatric intensive care units

“…8,11 The overall use of rapid tranquillisation and zuclopenthixol acetate appeared similar to that in the south Manchester study, 10 but direct comparison was limited by lack of detail about the route of administration. Practice had clearly changed since Pilowsky et al's 1992 study when intravenous medication was used in more than half of rapid tranquillisation episodes.…”

“…= 295, P50.001) than those who were not given rapid IM tranquillisation. They received a mean of 2.1 injections (median 2.0, range [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. No patients were given psychotropic medication by intravenous injection during the study period.…”

“…Surveys of PICU policies and practice leave doubts about whether answers to hypothetical questions reflect actual practice. 2,7 Prescribing patterns on individual PICUs [8][9][10][11] may not generalise to other units. The limited evidence suggests that the prescribing practices of different PICUs are converging 12 but it is difficult to judge the appropriateness of individual practices without reference data from representative units.…”

Psychiatric Intensive Care Units: a Literature Review

“…The only study making a comparison between acute unit and PICU patients was from the USA, and shows no difference in the proportions detained (Rachlin 1973). (Goldney, Bowes, Spence, Czeckhowicz, & Hurley 1985;Goldney, Spence, & Bowes 1986). While one US study (one PICU) reports no difference between PICU and other patients (Rachlin 1973), a UK study (one PICU) reports greater numbers of PICU patients are single (Brown & Bass 2004).…”

“…First descriptions of PICUs started to appear in the 1970s in the UK (Mounsey 1979;Weaver, Broome, & Kat 1978), USA (Rachlin 1973) and in the 1980s in Australia (Goldney et al 1985;Goldney, Spence, & Bowes 1986;Hafner et al 1989;Jeffery & Goldney 1982) and Canada (Musisi, Wasylenki, & Rapp 1989).…”