Current Challenges and Evidence-Based Medicine in Psychiatric Emergencies

Psychiatric emergencies are acute disturbances in thought, behavior, mood, or social relationship that require immediate intervention as defined by the patient, family, or social unit to save the patient and/or others from imminent danger. Psychiatric emergencies may represent from 10 to 30% of all emergencies (considering variations in each setting). Training about the topic is not common in health professional’s graduation and decision be empirics. In this Research Topic, we propose a supplemental exclusively for research about Psychiatric Emergencies based on the principles of Evidence-Based Medicine. With new research and new paradigms in understanding the causes, evolution, and treatment of mental disorders in recent years, it is necessary that the approaches to the most severe situations need to be updated.

This Research Topic welcomes Clinical Trials, Original Research, Policy and Practice Reviews, Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Brief Research Reports, and Mini-Reviews. Topics include but are not limited to, the following subtopics on the involvement of epidemiology, diagnosis, non-pharmacological and pharmacological management of psychiatric emergencies:

• Psychotic disorder
• Mood disorder
• Anxiety disorders and stress-related disorders
• Disorders due to substance use
• Delirium
• Dementia behavior management
• Personality disorders
• Psychomotor agitation
• Suicidal behavior
• Technics of psychotherapy in psychiatric emergencies
• Laws and ethics in psychiatric emergencies
• Training and education of psychiatric emergencies
• Psychiatric emergencies in special groups as childhood and adolescence, pregnancy, postpartum, and in elderly