title: Assessing and managing suicidal patients in the emergency department.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this article is to set out consensus guidelines for the assessment and management of "suicidal patients" in the emergency department.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinicians should be respectful and reassuring. They should review old notes, conduct a full history and examination, and talk to friends, family and any practitioners already involved in the patient's care. Management should be guided, where possible, by the patient's preferences, not by notions of risk. Every negotiated management plan and its rationale should be carefully documented.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Associate Professor and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, and; Discipline of Psychiatry, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, and; the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia christopher.ryan@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Christopher James
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Service, The Prince of Wales Hospitals, Sydney, NSW, and; School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Large
authors.affiliation: Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gribble
authors.affiliation: Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District; Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Macfarlane
authors.affiliation: Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist, Royal North Shore Hospital, North Sydney, NSW, and; Discipline of Psychiatry, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ilchef
authors.affiliation: Emergency Psychiatrist, St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, NSW, and; School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Tad
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tietze
mesh_terms: D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: attempted suicide; emergency department; practice guideline; suicidal ideation; suicide