I read with interest a recent paper in your journal, in which three consciousness assessment scales were compared in poisoned patients and finally a new scale "AVPU plus" was proposed (1). The study was very interesting with a worthy objective. I would like to admire the authors for exploring how the Alert/Verbal/Painful/Unresponsive (AVPU) responsive scale corresponds with the Glasgow Coma Sca...

Background: Few methods have been introduced to assess the level of consciousness in critically-ill patients. This study was designed to evaluate how the AlertVerbalPainfulUnresponsive (AVPU) responsive scale corresponds with the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RASS) scores in drug-poisoned patients and to devise an augmented AVPU scale. Methods: In this prospect...

Introduction Due to the exacerbation of psychotic processes in acute psychiatric services, patients may exhibit risky behaviors for themselves and others. Especially, psycho-motor agitation seen schizophrenia result some harmful towards him/her self or other individuals patient. Physical restrain, chemical restrain with psychotropic drugs can be used ensuring safety patient a tendency toward vi...

Antipsychotics (APs) are psychotropic drugs that generally have a psycholeptic effect, capable of reducing psychotic symptoms and psychomotor agitation. This class is widely used in psychiatric practice, especially for the treatment psychosis schizophrenia other disorders. Most APs pass through biotransformation process, or metabolism, after they enter body before being eliminated. There three ...

Background: Major depression is one of the most prevalent, disabling, and costly illnesses worldwide. Despite a 400% increase in antidepressant medication use since 1988, fewer than half of treated depression patients experience a clinically meaningful reduction in symptoms and uncertainty exists regarding how to successfully obtain symptom remission. Identifying homogenous subgroups based on c...

Catatonia is a psychomotor syndrome that has been reported to occur in more than 10% of patients with acute psychiatric illnesses. Two subtypes of the syndrome have been identified. Catatonia of the retarded type is characterized by immobility, mutism, staring, rigidity, and a host of other clinical signs. Excited catatonia is a less common presentation in which patients develop prolonged perio...