RESEARCH ARTICLE
State of Acute Agitation at Psychiatric Emergencies in Europe: The STAGE Study
Luis Sana, *, Josef Marksteinerb, Peter Zwanzgerc, María Aragüés Figuerod, Francisco Toledo Romeroe, Grigorios Kyropoulosf, Alberto Bessa Peixotog, Roxana Chiritah, Anca Boldeanui
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2016Volume: 12
First Page: 75
Last Page: 86
Publisher ID: CPEMH-12-75
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901612010075
Article History:
Received Date: 15/03/2016Revision Received Date: 19/09/2016
Acceptance Date: 22/09/2016
Electronic publication date: 27/10/2016
Collection year: 2016
open-access license: This is an open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
Agitation is an array of syndromes and types of behaviors that are common in patients with psychiatric disorders. In Europe, the estimation of prevalence of agitation has been difficult due to the lack of standard studies or systematic data collection done on this syndrome.
Objective:
An observational, cross-sectional, multicenter study aimed to assess the prevalence of agitation episodes in psychiatric emergencies in different European countries.
Method:
For 1 week, all episodes of acute agitation that were attended to at the psychiatric emergency room (ER) or Acute Inpatient Unit (AIU) in the 27 participating centers were registered. The clinical characteristics and management of the agitation episode were also described. A descriptive analysis was performed.
Results:
A total of 334 agitation episodes out of 7295 psychiatric emergencies were recorded, giving a prevalence rate of 4.6% (95% CI: 4.12-5.08). Of them, 172 [9.4% (95% CI: 8.2-10.9)] were attended at the ER and 162 [2.8% (95% CI: 2.4-3.3)] at AIU. Only data from 165 episodes of agitation (those with a signed informed consent form) was registered and described in this report. The most common psychiatric conditions associated with agitation were schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and personality disorder. The management of agitation included from non-invasive to more coercive measures (mechanical, physical restraint or seclusion) that were unavoidable in more than half of the agitation episodes (59.5%).
Conclusion:
The results show that agitation is a common symptom in the clinical practice, both in emergency and inpatient psychiatric departments. Further studies are warranted to better recognize (using a standardized definition) and characterize agitation episodes.
