1. Gambling becomes disordered when it causes harmful consequences in a person's life. 2. An individual with a gambling disorder will continue to gamble despite negative outcomes and will experience intense urges and cravings. 3. The DSM-5 classifies gambling disorder as an addiction, under the substance-related and addictive disorders section.

This fact sheet aims to provide an evidence-based guide on when and why to order an EKG, medications that may necessitate an EKG, and basic EKG interpretation tips.

This sheet guides you in how to use medications to rapidly treat patients with severe mania. Many of these patients have bipolar disorder; others may have schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, while others may have arrived on your unit with a murky psychiatric history but with agitation, racing thoughts and other hallmarks of mania.

This sheet guides you in how to use medications to rapidly treat patients with severe mania. Many of these patients have bipolar disorder; others may have schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, while others may have arrived on your unit with a murky psychiatric history but with agitation, racing thoughts and other hallmarks of mania.

The most challenging aspect of diagnosing bipolar disorder is establishing a history of a manic or hypomanic episode. Patients with bipolar disorder spend much more time in depressed episodes and may not clearly recall having had a manic episode. Furthermore, the symptoms of mania overlap with other syndromes, such as borderline personality disorder, psychosis, anxiety, and ADHD.

Many patients with substance use disorders suffer from anxiety and agitation and a common challenge on inpatient units is to steer such patients away from benzodiazepines and toward alternatives.

Many patients that you will admit to the hospital have significant anxiety. Often this is anxiety related to depression or psychosis, but sometimes this is an actual anxiety disorder. In this fact sheet, we discuss an efficient and rapid method for screening and making a provisional diagnosis of an anxiety disorder. 

Adult ADHD can become a contentious issue on the inpatient unit, primarily because the treatment of choice, psychostimulants, is a substance of abuse for some people. Some units have a blanket policy of not prescribing stimulants. In other cases, it is a doctor-specific issue, with some making withholding stimulants a part of their own practice. There are rationales for both points of view.