title: Psychiatry in the emergency room: one year period of clinical experience.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the psychiatric consultations carried out over one year at the Emergency Room (ER) of the hospital of Perugia, with the aim of describing the epidemiologic characteristics of patients with any psychiatric illness and their management. We also assessed the distribution of psychiatric emergencies over this year of observation.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recruited patients admitted to the ER, between July 2011 and June 2012, for which a psychiatric consultation was required. We used the t-test for continuous variables. Categorical variables were analyzed with the chi-squared test and the Fisher exact test. We considered significant test results with p<0.05. The post-hoc analyses were carried out with Bonferroni or Sidak correction. Statistical analyses were performed using STATA 12.0.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders were the most represented. The most frequent approach to patients with psychiatric complaints did not imply the use of psychopharmacological treatments or coercive interventions. No particular seasonality of psychopathology was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  One of the fundamental aspects of the psychiatric intervention is empathy along with the attempt to enter into a relationship with the patient, in order to share, where possible, the therapeutic project, particularly in the case the of patients with acute and severe psychiatric illnesses.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia - Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital - Sant'Andrea delle Fratte, Perugia, Italy, serena.anastasi@libero.it.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Anastasi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Eusebi
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Quartesan