Occupational therapists (OTs) play a pivotal role in inpatient treatment settings. While the title "occupational therapy" might initially seem puzzling, its roots are deeply intertwined with the history of psychiatric treatment. In the era before modern psychiatric care, wards primarily served as containment facilities, offering basic necessities but little in terms of holistic treatment. The revolution arrived in the form of occupational therapy, founded on the belief that mental illnesses arose from imbalances between work and leisure.

Like most psychiatric hospitals, yours probably has a policy requiring that you order a lipid panel and a diabetes screen on any patients taking an antipsychotic. While ordering these labs is straightforward, interpreting the results and understanding their implications is key, especially given the metabolic side effects associated with certain antipsychotic medications. This fact sheet delves into what lipid panels measure, why they're important for psychiatric patients, and how to use the results in clinical practice.

SSRIs are the first-line treatment for LLD because of their favorable side effect profiles and because they also help with cooccurring anxiety.

This cheat sheet quickly reminds you of common strategies for managing side effects from psychiatric medications. For more detailed information, refer to our comprehensive fact sheets on each side effect

Evaluating an older patient’s functional status can help you determine which activities they need help with and what level of support they need to be safe. ● It’s done by asking about basic activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living

Managing patients’ anger effectively is critical for both patient well-being and the safety of the hospital environment. This fact sheet provides tips and sample dialogues to assist your patients in identifying their anger triggers, expressing their anger constructively, and reducing aggressive behaviors.

Psychiatric medications cause plenty of side effects, and yet we tend to severely underestimate the number of side effects our patients are experiencing. According to one survey, patients on antidepressants reported 20 times more side effects than were documented by their psychiatrists (Zimmerman M et al, J Clin Psychiatry 2010;71(4):484–490). Sometimes we don’t ask about side effects because we’re not sure what to do about them—so we have created detailed fact sheets covering common side effects and suggesting management strategies. In this fact sheet we’ll give you more general tips on how to ask patients about side effects and how to manage them.

Here we provide an overview of strategies for managing borderline personality disorder (BPD) on the inpatient unit

Psychosis is common, and there are many varieties. This fact sheet guides you through the process of thinking through the main DSM-5 diagnoses that apply to psychotic disorders. For help with how to ask the right questions to discover psychosis in patients, see the How to Interview for Psychosis Fact Sheet.

Psychiatric meds help a lot but can also cause side effects. Here are some key points to keep in mind: