Thursday, August 7, 2014

What would you do next?

You are dealing with a walk-in patient who is a 32-year-old male, currently serving in the state National Guard. 

He is angry, depressed, and his drug screen is positive for opiates. 

Questioning reveals that during the deployment, he had injured his knee, and has been placed on opiates for pain management. 

When he came back from overseas, the military doctors refused to continue the opiates and he went out and found a doctor to continue prescribing them. 

He is very anxious and agitated. 

He stated he was brought to your center by his father. 

He stated that he made a statement to his wife, and his wife became afraid, and called his father who came over to his house and insisted on driving him to your hospital. 

When you ask about the statement he made to his wife, he says that he told her, "This pain is so severe that I'm going to get a knife and either cut myself or cut somebody else." 

Currently he is denying any suicidal ideations or homicidal ideations. 

When you ask about any other type of drugs he may have used he shuts down and refuses to talk to you.


What would you do next?

2 comments:

  1. focus on the here and now; assessing for the level of pain.

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  2. I would ask about nature of service in military. If positive for experience of trauma i would look at possible ptsd.

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