Nursing Management of Psychomotor Agitation

Agitation is defined as a disturbance of motor, psychological and relational behavior. It provokes a reaction of intolerance from the environment. It is a non-specific symptom that can be linked to many pathologies. The problem is not to diagnose it, but to organize the immediate treatment and to find the cause (psychiatric or somatic origin). In practice, we proceed by systematic research and "elimination" of a somatic origin that could threaten the patient's vital prognosis before concluding to a psychiatric origin.Managing a state of agitation is a potentially difficult experience. Negotiating care, negotiating the acceptance of treatments, and preventing the patient from acting out while continuing to care for other patients considerably increases the workload and confronts the physician and nursing staff with a modification of the usual caregiver-patient relationship.