ABSTRACT
The management of psychiatric emergencies among patients with medical conditions requires ensuring the patient's safety, identifying delirium and other medical etiologies, treating the underlying disorder, and providing symptomatic relief for the acute crisis with medication and psychological intervention. Many medical conditions can give rise to psychiatric manifestations. The common psychiatric presentations seen in medical settings that require urgent intervention are agitation, violence, extreme distress, and suicidal behavior. Many psychiatric symptoms that are secondary to medical illness may resolve with the treatment of the medical condition. Among some patients with HIV, psychiatric disorders predate the HIV infection, while in others, they occur during the course of living with the disease and as a result of its psychosocial consequences. Delirium occurs frequently among HIV-infected patients and can result in agitation that requires emergency management. Psychosis or other psychiatric syndromes may also occur secondary to the substance use disorder.
