Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry最新文献

Background: Breastfeeding shares a complex, occasionally contradictory relationship with maternal mental health. Both positive and negative mood impacts have been noted in relation to breastfeeding initiation as well as cessation. Though popular magazines and online forums discuss the onset of psychiatric symptoms following weaning, there is limited medical literature detailing this relationship.

Methods: We describe the case of a patient who developed psychiatric symptoms shortly after weaning, including acute-onset insomnia and worsening anxiety. A literature review of psychiatric symptom development following breastfeeding cessation was conducted using the search engines PubMed, PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), and Embase. Search terms included controlled vocabulary, keywords (within title and abstract fields), synonyms, and related concepts for: postpartum period, postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, breastfeeding cessation, breastfeeding weaning, lactation, dysphoric milk ejection reflex, and insomnia. Relevant case reports were reviewed and compared to this case. Information including the patient's age, psychiatric symptoms, past psychiatric history, medical work-up, treatment, and outcome was extracted from each article.

Results: Nine patients who developed psychiatric symptoms following breastfeeding cessation were identified in six case reports. Three patients experienced recurrent symptoms in multiple pregnancies. This led to documentation of 13 discrete post-weaning syndromes. All cases involved either first-time parents, those new to breastfeeding, or those experiencing symptoms during multiple weaning periods. Table 1 synthesizes data from article review. As with our case, 11 clinical cases describe sleep changes (primarily insomnia) and 4 discuss anxiety symptoms. Treatment varied based upon symptoms experienced, with no consistently effective treatments identified across cases.

Conclusions: This case of unspecified insomnia and anxiety disorders following abrupt weaning adds to the limited literature in the field and suggests that physiologic and psychologic factors associated with breastfeeding cessation may play a role in the development or worsening of postpartum mood disorders. Intensive psychiatric treatment resulted in resolution of the patient's symptoms. The relationship between weaning and psychiatric disorders is evident in the lay press but is underrepresented in medical literature. Additional research is needed to better understand this relationship so that physicians can counsel, diagnose, and treat patients more effectively.

Background: Nonprescribed substance use (NPSU) is a recognized phenomenon exhibited by patients with substance use disorders while admitted to inpatient hospitals. What factors distinguish patients who engage in NPSU, or how their hospitalizations and outcomes differ, remains to be understood in full.

Objectives: Our study describes a cohort of medically admitted patients with substance use disorders with behaviors concerning for NPSU during their hospitalization.

Methods: We extracted electronic health record data for all hospital encounters when an addiction consult was documented (n = 3100). We defined NPSU cases during a clinical, interdisciplinary case review in which patients were deemed high risk based on team members' observations of one or more behaviors described in the NPSU Checklist. These individuals were placed on a "NPSU Protocol," which was implemented for optimization of care, destigmatization, and risk mitigation (n = 61). We compared clinical characteristics, resource utilization, and treatment outcomes among the NPSU cohort to addiction consult patients without suspicion of NPSU but with stimulant or opioid use disorder diagnoses.

Results: Patients on the NPSU protocol were younger and had higher rates of infectious disease diagnoses reported during hospitalization than patients without concern for NPSU. Hospitalizations for individuals suspected of NPSU were longer, had higher rates of before medically advised discharge, as well as discharges without medications for opioid use disorder. These outcome differences were also observed when analysis was restricted to hospitalizations in which an infectious disease was diagnosed.

Conclusions: Our study characterizes a population of people who exhibited behaviors concerning for NPSU and highlights key outcome disparities. To our knowledge, this study is the first to show a direct correlation between infectious disease diagnosis and NPSU, as well as a direct correlation between suspected NPSU and outcomes such as before medically advised discharge and discharge without medications for opioid use disorder, irrespective of infectious disease diagnosis. Further study is necessary to determine interventions to reduce poor outcomes among hospitalized patients with NPSU.

Medical psychiatry units (MPUs), also known as complexity intervention units, represent an important innovation for integrating medical and behavioral health care in the hospital setting, thereby reducing the need for sequential medical and psychiatric hospitalization. As US hospitals face an increased demand for mental health services, interest in the MPU model is gaining momentum. However, there is no shared definition for what constitutes an MPU, and significant variation exists among units across the United States that have been designated as an MPU. The lack of a unified definition for MPUs results in significant variability and poses challenges for creating new MPUs and studying existing MPUs. To address this gap, the Medical-Psychiatry Unit Consortium recruited a panel of MPU experts to conduct a consensus study. The consortium used a survey to assess the relative importance of various characteristics of MPUs within the following categories: structural organization, environment and design, spectrum of care, staffing, and culture of care. After two rounds of a modified Delphi process, consensus was achieved with regard to which characteristics are necessary or preferred vs. not necessary or harmful. The necessary or preferred characteristics include those that would be expected on a general medical unit, such as having cardiac telemetry monitoring capabilities, as well as characteristics typical of a psychiatric unit, such as locked unit doors, locked cabinets for patient belongings, and common area or milieu. Overall, this suggests that an ideal MPU combines the ability to provide acute medical care with acute psychiatric care. Notably, staffing and culture of care emerged as categories with the highest ranking of necessary characteristics, outweighing environment, design, or the breadth of services offered. These findings suggest that MPU experts feel teamwork and having a shared mission are critical components of effective MPUs and highlight the importance of staff recruitment and training.

Background: In 2021, suicide was the second leading cause of death in early adolescent Americans ages 10-14. Research into suicidal behavior in this age group is limited. We report on prior psychiatric care, attempt method, and attempt outcomes in a cohort of 164 early adolescents accrued by first suicide attempt coming to medical attention.

Methods: Our cohort constitutes a subsample from a previously reported retrospective-prospective study identified through the Rochester Epidemiology Project that recruited individuals making first suicide attempts coming to medical attention (index attempt [IA]) during a 22-year period (1/1/1986-31/12/07). Among 1490 all-age index attempters followed until 12/31/2010, 164 (11.0%) were aged 10-14.

Results: 3/164 died on IA (1.8% of the cohort; two females, one male). Nearly half (72/164, 43.9%) had no prior psychiatric history. Females were less likely than males to have seen a mental health provider (P = 0.029) or been prescribed psychiatric medications (P < 0.001) prior to IA. Medication overdose was the most common attempt method in females (81/128, 63.3%), while cutting or piercing wounds were the most common method in males (13/36, 36.1%). Females were significantly more likely than males to overdose (P = 0.001). Of IA survivors, 19.9% (32/161) were initially medically hospitalized, 52.8% (85/161) were psychiatrically hospitalized-initially or in transfer-and 37.2% (60/161) were discharged without hospitalization.

Conclusion: Medication overdoses accounted for over half of all IAs and were significantly more common in females. While IA mortality was low relative to older patients from the all-age-cohort, morbidity was substantial with nearly a fifth of attempts severe enough to warrant medical hospitalization and more than half initial or eventual psychiatric hospitalization. These findings emphasize the importance of both means restriction and identification of early adolescents at risk before they make their first attempt.

We present the fictional case of a 29-year-old man with sickle cell disease referred to psychiatry for evaluation of depression during an acute pain episode. Consultation-liaison psychiatrists with expertise in sickle cell disease provide guidance for this commonly encountered clinical case based on their experience and a review of the available literature. Key teaching points include the high prevalence of mood and cognitive disorders in this population, as well as pertinent issues related to chronic pain, opioids, and stigma.

Background: Pediatric catatonia is associated with a high degree of morbidity and mortality in children. However, pediatric catatonia is highly responsive to treatment if rapidly identified and appropriate interventions are administered. To our knowledge, there are no current publications which propose a systematic approach for the management of pediatric catatonia.

Objective: The aim of our report was to create multidisciplinary clinical care roadmap for catatonia in the inpatient pediatric setting within Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).

Methods: At VUMC, we formed a team of pediatric providers from child and adolescent psychiatry, rheumatology, neurology, pediatric hospital medicine, and pediatric psychology. Our team met on a regular basis over the course of 2022-2024 to review the current literature on pediatric catatonia and develop a consensus for clinical assessment and management.

Results: We determined consensus recommendations from our VUMC multidisciplinary team for the following domains of pediatric catatonia inpatient clinical care: initial assessment of pediatric catatonia in the inpatient pediatric settings, medical and psychiatric work up for pediatric catatonia, the lorazepam challenge in pediatric populations, behavioral and environmental considerations, and the use of electroconvulsive therapy and alternative psychopharmacologic interventions in pediatric catatonia.

Conclusion: Pediatric catatonia is a condition associated with a high degree of morbidity and mortality but is responsive to treatment if diagnosed and treated early. The inpatient pediatric medical setting provides a unique opportunity for identification and treatment. Our clinical care roadmap provides tools for inpatient clinicians at VUMC to identify pediatric catatonia and initiate an evidence-based approach to medical workup, management, and clinical care. This approach has the potential to significantly improve longitudinal outcomes and quality of life improvements for children at VUMC with catatonia and their families.