Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Randomized Controlled Trial of Adult Therapeutic Coloring for the Management of Significant Anxiety in the Emergency Department.
Anxiety and acute distress are significant concerns in the emergency department (ED). Adult coloring books are often utilized as an effective means of relaxation in waiting rooms and newsstands, but there are no reported randomized trials examining their effectiveness as a treatment for anxiety. ⋯ Among ED patients, exposure to adult coloring books resulted in lower self-reported levels of anxiety at 2 hours compared to placebo.
-
Our objectives were to test whether during a potentially life-threatening medical emergency, perceived threat (a patient's sense of life endangerment) in the emergency department (ED) is common and associated with the subsequent development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. ⋯ Perceived threat during potentially life-threatening emergencies is common and independently associated with development of PTSD symptoms. Additional research to test whether reduction of perceived threat in the ED attenuates the development of PTSD symptoms following potentially life-threatening emergencies is warranted.
-
The objective was to determine the proportion of patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) treated with unfractionated heparin (UFH) who achieved therapeutic activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) values within 48 hours of treatment. ⋯ The majority of patients with acute PE spend most of their first 48 hours outside of the therapeutic range of AC when treated with guideline standard dosing of UFH. Over half of the patients fail to achieve any therapeutic PTT level within 24 hours of UFH initiation, and no patient had all therapeutic aPTTs. Future research should focus on identifying factors associated with achieving therapeutic AC with UFH.