title: [The acute management of agitation].
abstract: Agitation in psychiatry is defined as "a request to which an answer cannot be deferred". If some types of controllable agitation can be solved by human means or psychotropic drugs, others may require the intervention of intensivists who will contribute to the onset of crisis resolution. In addition, an organic aetiology must be carefully excluded a before considering a psychiatric origin of agitation, especially in patients with no psychiatric history and in the elderly. Indeed, acute agitation can hide serious somatic traps and be life threatening.
authors.affiliation: Service de Psychiatrie et de Psychologie Médicale, CHU de Liege.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bakay
authors.affiliation: Service de Psychiatrie et de Psychologie Médicale, CHU de Liege.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iweins
authors.affiliation: Service de Psychiatrie et de Psychologie Médicale, CHU de Liege.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scantamburlo
authors.affiliation: Service de Psychiatrie et de Psychologie Médicale, CHU de Liege.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ansseau
authors.affiliation: Service de Psychiatrie et de Psychologie Médicale, CHU de Liege.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Pitchot
mesh_terms: D003221:Confusion / Q000150:complications; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011595:Psychomotor Agitation / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy*
chemical_list: D006993:Hypnotics and Sedatives