BACKGROUND Delusions of parasitosis (DP) is a rare psychiatric disorder in which the patient has a firm belief that she or he is infected by parasites. Although it is a psychiatric disorder, these patients often present to an emergency physician because they are convinced that they have a severe skin problem. TREATMENT Patients with DP often reject psychiatric referral. The diagnosis of DP ca...

introduction: rapid acute physiology score (raps) and rapid emergency medicine score (rems) are two physiologic models for measuring injury severity in emergency settings. the present study was designed to compare the two models in outcome prediction of trauma patients presenting to emergency department (ed). methods: in this prospective cross-sectional study, the two models of raps and rems we...

In May 1980, Liberty City Miami, a black area, suffered a humanmade disaster: a riot. The effects of the riot on the utilization pattern of the only psychiatric emergency service (PES) for the Liberty City catchment area were studied in two ways: autocorrelation and cross-correlation analyses were used to determine whether PES presentations demonstrated a 7-day cycle and whether this cycle was ...

BACKGROUND Emergency department (ED) delays have multiple causes and create frustration for patients and staff alike. METHODS New adult psychiatric ED consultations were studied. Elapsed time between workflow stages was tested as a predictor of total time from triage to disposition. To expedite interviews a one-page form was provided for interested patients to complete before psychiatric eval...

Limited capacity in a psychiatric unit contributes to long emergency department (ED) admission wait times. Regulatory and accrediting agencies urge hospitals nationally to improve patient flow for better access to care for all types of patients. The purpose of the current study was to decrease psychiatric admission wait time from 10.5 to 8 hours and increase the proportion of patients discharge...

OBJECTIVE To use linked administrative datasets to assess factors associated with emergency department (ED) presentation and psychiatric readmission in three distinctive time intervals after the index psychiatric admission. DESIGN A retrospective data-linkage study. SETTING Cohort study using four linked government minimum datasets including acute hospital care from July 2005 to June 2012 i...

Psychiatric emergency service assessments of 683 patients were observed to better understand the quality of care substance users receive and the effects of clinicians' attitudes toward their patients on such care. Findings run counter to those of previous reports in that substance users, once recognized, are likely to receive better care than other patients.

This is the final issue of the Journal of Accident and Emergency Medicine to appear under my editorship. Peter Driscoll and Jim Wardrope have been appointed as editors and I wish them every success. As I head towards the sunset, I must express my thanks to all those who have been part of the editorial team during my tenure. Without wishing to be too Oscar-esque, there are key individuals withou...

Two studies are reported which examine the entire population o f behavior settings (N = 455) measured on 43 variables in a small midwestern town. Study I reports the results o f a factor analysis o f 43 variables measured across the entire population o f settings. Results o f Study I indicate that age, sex, role o f setting inhabitants, duration, and various behavior patterns all constitute imp...