The Emergency Treatment of the Depressed Patient with Physical Illness

Approaching individuals in the emergency situation presenting with medical illness and depression requires an understanding of psychologic, biologic, social, and existential factors that converge to create alterations in mood, thought, and behavior. Clinicians must understand how these same factors may be used in managing patient response to treatment of both the depression associated with an illness and the physical illness itself. Whenever a physical illness is present, it is imperative to ascertain the degree to which physical illness and concomitant treatment may be responsible for the psychiatric symptoms.