For its management , experts agreed in considering  verbal de-escalation  and  environmental modification techniques  as first choice , considering physical restraint as a last resort strategy .
BACKGROUND Psychomotor agitation is associated with different psychiatric conditions and represents an important issue in psychiatry .
Current recommendations on agitation in psychiatry are not univocal .
Actually , an improper assessment and management may result in unnecessary coercive or sedative treatments .
A thorough and balanced review plus an expert consensus can guide assessment and treatment decisions .
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled efficacy and safety study of quetiapine or lithium as monotherapy for mania in bipolar disorder.
OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of quetiapine monotherapy versus placebo for the treatment of mania associated with bipolar disorder . METHOD In an international , multicenter , double-blind , parallel-group , 12-week study , patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of bipolar I disorder ( manic episode ) were r and omly assigned to treatment with quetiapine ( flexibly dosed up to 800 mg/day ) , placebo , or lithium . The primary efficacy measure was change from baseline in Young Mania Rating Scale ( YMRS ) score at day 21 . Data were gathered from April 2001 to May 2002 . RESULTS More patients in the quetiapine ( 72/107 ) and lithium ( 67/98 ) groups completed the study compared with the placebo group ( 35/97 ) . Improvement ( reduction ) in YMRS score was significantly greater for quetiapine than placebo at day 7 ( -8.03 vs. -4.89 ; p < .01 ) , and the difference between groups continued to increase over time to day 21 ( -14.6 vs. -6.7 ; p < .001 ) and to endpoint at day 84 ( -20.3 vs. -9.0 ; p < .001 ) . Significantly more quetiapine patients compared with placebo patients fulfilled YMRS response criteria at day 21 ( 53.3 % vs. 27.4 % ; p < .001 ) and at day 84 ( 72.0 % vs. 41.1 % ; p < .001 ) . Quetiapine was also superior to placebo in efficacy at day 21 and day 84 by all secondary measures . Lithium-treated patients improved significantly compared with placebo patients and similarly to quetiapine-treated patients on the primary efficacy measure . The most common adverse events for quetiapine were dry mouth , somnolence , and weight gain , while lithium was associated with tremor and insomnia . The quetiapine and placebo groups had similar , low levels of extrapyramidal symptom-related adverse events . CONCLUSIONS Quetiapine demonstrated superior efficacy to placebo in patients with bipolar mania and was well tolerated
For its management , experts agreed in considering  verbal de-escalation  and  environmental modification techniques  as first choice , considering physical restraint as a last resort strategy .
BACKGROUND Psychomotor agitation is associated with different psychiatric conditions and represents an important issue in psychiatry .
Current recommendations on agitation in psychiatry are not univocal .
Actually , an improper assessment and management may result in unnecessary coercive or sedative treatments .
A thorough and balanced review plus an expert consensus can guide assessment and treatment decisions .