Citation

Woesner ME, Marsh J, Kanofsky JD. Prim. Care Companion CNS Disord. 2014; 16(4): 14br01639.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Bronx Psychiatric Center (Drs Woesner and Kanofsky); and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (all authors), Bronx, New York.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Physicians Postgraduate Press)

DOI

10.4088/PCC.14br01639

PMID

25664203

Abstract

Physical diseases are difficult to treat in psychiatric patients, whether they are comorbid disorders or mental disorders due to a general medical condition. The psychiatric symptoms are difficult to treat in a medical ward or clinic, and the physical symptoms are difficult to treat in a psychiatric ward or clinic. For this reason, medical-psychiatric units have been developed but remain uncommon. It has been suggested that assertive community treatment (ACT) teams are a way in which to integrate medical and psychiatric treatments. We review the case of a woman with psychiatric symptoms caused by Graves disease that went untreated due to medication noncompliance and unmanageable irritability, aggression, and mood variability. We make a case for the use of the assertive community treatment team in the treatment of patients with mental disorders due to a general medical condition when the psychiatric manifestations are severe and cannot be managed in a medical ward or clinic.

Language: en