Effects of a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The purpose of the study is to compare the effects of using or not using a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in an acute psychiatric department.

Detailed Description
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The main aim of the study is to compare the effects of using or not using a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in an acute psychiatric department.The acute ward of Østmarka psychiatric department, St. Olavs Hospital has a PICU separated from the rest of the ward. The PICU is separated with a locked door. Under two different conditions at different times all patients evaluated to be in need of PICU were admitted to the PICU. In the first condition the doors inside the PICU and between the rest of the acute ward and PICU were closed or locked. In the second condition the doors inside the PICU and the door between the PICU and the rest of the acute ward were either removed or held permanently open. In the second condition the patients thus were admitted to a PICU unit not using PICU principles. The patients were evaluated with different rating scales at admittance, day three and at discharge from PICU.

Official Title
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Effects of a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit in an Acute Psychiatric Department.

Conditions
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Mental Disorders

Intervention / Treatment
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* Procedure: Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit
* Procedure: Care in whole acute unit


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: All patients admitted to Østmarka psychiatric department, St. Olavs Hospital in need of a PICU. Exclusion Criteria: Patients with dementia or mental retardation to an extensive degree. Patients not speaking Norwegian or English.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 110 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit<br> | Procedure: Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit<br> <br> |
| Active Comparator: Whole acute unit<br> | Procedure: Care in whole acute unit<br>* psychiatric acute care as usual<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Length of stay in Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) |  | 3 days | 
| Symptoms of psychopathology | assessed by Broset Violence Checklist (BVC), a six-item observer-rated scale scoring behaviours. Higher scores predict imminent violence in psychiatric inpatients | 3 days | 
| Violent or threatening incidents | recorded with the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised (SOAS-R), | 3 days | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Therapeutic steps and nurses' interventions | coded daily on a 23-item checklist | 3 days | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Intensive care units, Hospitals, psychiatric, Violence, Emergency services, psychiatric, Aggression