Behavioural Emergencies Flashcards
Behaviour
The way people act or perform
Behavioural disorder
Disorder of mood, thought, or behaviour that affects a person’s ability to perform activities of daily living
Organic or psychiatric causes
Behavioural emergencies
Abnormal behaviour that threatens the health and safety of themselves or others
Psychiatric emergencies
Person becomes suicidal, homicidal, or has a psychotic episode
Often delusions (false beliefs) or hallucinations (false perceptions) that result in loss of contact with reality
Organic brain syndrome (biological causes of abnormal behaviour)
Suffering from a physical illness or under the influence of a substance that interferes with normal cerebral function
Delirium
Global impairment of consciousness and cognitive function that comes on rapidly
Dementia
Gradual development of memory impairment and cognitive disturbances, usually over months
Psychosocial causes of abnormal behaviour
Cause related to the patient’s personality style, unresolved conflicts, and crisis management methods
Sociocultural causes of abnormal behaviour
Related to a patient’s actions and interactions with society
Disorders of consciousness
Degree to which a person is aware of and attentive to the external world
Disorders of motor activity
Changes to motor activity including restlessness, agitation, compulsions, and stereotyped activity
Disorders of thinking
Highest mental function that requires integration of knowledge, perception, and memory
Mood
Person’s sustained and pervasive emotional state
Affect
Outward expression of a person’s mood
Perception
The way a person processes data supplied by the five senses
Psychomotor
Relationship between cognitive functions and physical movement
Facilitation
Technique encouraging the patient to communicate
Confrontation
Pointing out something of interest in the patient’s conversation or behaviour, thereby directing the patient’s attention to something he/she may have been unaware of
Sensorium
Sensation, perception, and interpretation of information
Dementia criteria
One or more of:
- Aphasia - impaired ability to communicate
- Apraxia - can explain but cannot act out a movement of an already learned activity
- Agnosia - inability to recognize previously known objects
Schizophrenia
Significant change in behaviour and loss of contact with reality
Key features of excited delirium (AHS protocol)
- Drug abuse or psych hx
- Hyperthermia
- Inappropriate clothing removal
- Violent/bizarre behaviour
- Insensitivity to pain
- Unexpected physical strength
- Constant/near constant physical activity
- Shouting/unintelligible noises
Three phases of activity preceding death from restraint asphyxia
- Preintervention phase - patient demonstrates signs of excited delirium
- Intervention initiation phase - EMS/police respond and recognize need for restraint; a chase or struggle ensues and the patient uses large amounts of energy
- Continued struggle phase - patient is restrained but continues to exert energy to escape, and will struggle to breath if prone; risk of respiratory and cardiac arrest
