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Severe Psychiatric Disturbances in the Post-Operative Period—A Five-Year Survey of Belfast Hospitals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

S. J. Knox*
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, The Queen's University, Belfast

Extract

There are few incidents more calculated to disturb the well-ordered routine of a surgical unit than when a patient develops a severe psychiatric disorder in the post-operative period. Such episodes may occur suddenly after an interval of seemingly uneventful recovery and in some instances may be of such severity as to result in an appreciable and even dangerous deterioration in the patient's physical state. The impact on relatives must also be considered, for it is easy to understand the dismay which they must experience on observing the patient pass from a state of apparent composure into one of hyperkinetic excitement, panic, or confusion.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1961 

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