The results, published in the current issue of General Hospital Psychiatry, also suggest that it may be possible to reduce by as much as 40% the time severely agitated patients spend in restraints during psychiatric emergencies.
Additionally, the researchers at Stony Brook University Hospital found that the medication was as effective in treating severe agitation associated with alcohol and drug use as it was in treating non-substance or alcohol abusing patients.
This observational study tracked the clinical outcome of 110 severely agitated patients who received Geodon IM (intramuscular formulation). Initial agitation levels were high, ranging from 6.5 to 6.9 on a scale that ranges from a high of 7.0 to a low of zero.
Within 30 minutes, whether the patients were psychotic or had abused alcohol or drugs, their agitation scores dropped to a normal range. In addition to quickly relieving agitation, the results of the new study showed a reduction in physical restraints.
“Being held in physical restraint is not only unpleasant, it also can be unsafe,” said Dr Andrew Francis, study investigator and director of inpatient psychiatry at Stony Brook University Hospital.
“Using it is a last resort. We want to minimize the exposure to it as much as possible,” he said, adding that reducing the time in restraints, and the time patients are agitated, might also reduce time spent in the emergency room and thus reduce costs. Dr Francis also stated that the results showed a “trend toward shorter overall stays in the Emergency Department.”
The study’s authors cautioned that this observational study was not a blinded, controlled design, because it is difficult to obtain consent from severely agitated patients, and called the work a “naturalistic” study, which reflects actual clinical practices.