Ep 115 Emergency Management of the Agitated Patient

Managing acutely agitated patients can cause anxiety in even the most seasoned emergency doctor. These are high risk patients and they are high risk to you and your ED staff. It’s important to understand that agitation or agitated delirium is a cardinal presentation – not a diagnosis. There is pathology lurking beneath - psychiatric, medical, traumatic and toxicological diagnoses driving these patients and we just won’t know which until we can safely calm them down...