Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Means to an end: Characteristics and follow-up of emergency department patients with a history of suicide attempt via medication overdose.
Availability and accessibility of a wide range of medications may be a contributing factor to rising medication-related overdose (OD) rates. Treatment for both suicide attempts (SAs) and ODs often occurs in the emergency department (ED), highlighting its potential as a screening and intervention point. The current study aimed to identify sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of individuals who reported SA via medication OD compared to other methods and to examine how these patients' suicide severity and behaviors differed over 12-month post-ED follow-up. ⋯ Among patients presenting to the ED, females, individuals with bipolar disorder, and patients with a college education, respectively, may be at highest risk for SAs via medication OD. Prospectively, medication OD appears to be a frequent method, even among individuals with no prior attempt via OD, as demonstrated by the high percentage of patients who did not have a medication OD at baseline, but reported a medication OD during follow-up.
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Emergency tracheal intubation is associated with a risk of clinical adverse events, including the risk of first-attempt failure. Induction agents usually include a sedative and a neuromuscular blocking agent (i.e., paralytic). Whether the order of administration (i.e., sedative vs. paralytic given first) is associated with first-attempt failure or adverse events is unknown. ⋯ In this Bayesian analysis a paralytic-first drug sequence was associated with reduced first-attempt failure during emergency tracheal intubation.
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Observational Study
Disparities in pain management among transgender patients presenting to the emergency department for abdominal pain.
Transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals have a gender identity or expression that differs from the sex assigned to them at birth. They are an underserved population who experience health care inequities. Our primary objective was to identify if there are treatment differences between TGD and cisgender lesbian/gay/bisexual/queer (LGBQ) or heterosexual individuals presenting with abdominal pain to the emergency department (ED). ⋯ There was no difference in frequency of pain assessment, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. More cisgender men, compared to TGD and cisgender women, received opioids for their pain.