“Just Plain Actin’ Crazy” – A Quick Guide to Abnormal Behavior

I’m not going to beat around the bush about this. We deal with some folks who act weird. First you have the folks that you work with. As a group the EMS community can be a bit on the strange side. But right now I’m talking about our patients. The spectrum of odd human behavior can be so vast that we are often at a loss to classify the patients presentation. It can be difficult to separate the delusion from the hallucination and the paranoia from the psychosis. Was that an episode of hysteria or mania? Here’s a quick guide to the clinical definitions of these terms that we kick around when our patient’s behavior transitions into the abnormal. Contents CatatoniaDelusionsHallucinationsHysteriaManiaParanoiaPsychosisCatatonia The state of catatonia can have both physical and emotional components. If the patient is willing to interact they tend to be emotionally flat or without affect. More commonly they are non-communicative. Body posture can be rigid or flaccid with very little movement. Catatonia occurs commonly in the schizophrenic patient population. The patient may be found sitting or standing and staring into space without regard for their surroundings. Take care not to mistake absence or complex-partial seizures as catatonic events. These states can also indicate toxic levels of the patient’s home medications so transport is necessary. Delusions A delusion is a false belief. Patients who believe that they are hist...
Source: The EMT Spot - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs