PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCIES AND GENERAL-HOSPITAL

The authors try to define the notion of psychiatric emergency << patho logy covering a whole line of situations characterized by their partic ularly acute and dramatic behaviors, their constant dealing with human relations, the high frequency of actings out and their usually rapid resolutions >> (translated from Vedrinne). They make a brief overview of french psychiatric emergencies departments organization in France e ither in psychiatric hospitals or in general hospitals. They report th e Nancy psychiatric emergencies room's experience, which was born in 1 987 and is based on an agreement between the psychiatric << secteurs > > and the general hospital. This agreement provides psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses 24h/24, working in a psychiatric room within the me dical emergencies department. This experience agrees with the recent f rench law about psychiatric emergencies.