title: The impact of the psychiatric intensive care unit on patients and staff.
abstract: Inpatient crisis intervention units have many of the characteristics of medical/surgical intensive care units. The author believes that the environment of these psychiatric intensive care units serves as an important source of stress and may increase the patient's symptomatology and impair the therapeutic effectiveness of the staff. He suggests some modifications in the environment that may ameliorate these effects.
mesh_terms: D000786:Anger; D001007:Anxiety; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003419:Crisis Intervention / Q000379:methods*; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005639:Frustration; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological