Psychotropic agents in emergency medicine

The aim of these two CME articles Psychotropic agents in emergency medicine and Psychopharmacotherapy in emergency medicine (issue 8/2013) is to give an overview of drugs and their indications in the context of emergency psychiatry. Most relevant for prehospital care are benzodiazepines and antipsychotics, like lorazepam, diazepam, and haloperidol. But even newer antipsychotics could be suitable for emergency medicine. The efficacy of some of the newer antipsychotics, so-called atypical antipsychotics, has been studied in emergency psychiatric departments. The evidence whether these drugs provide the required efficacy, universality and safety profile in emergency medicine, in comparison to, for example, haloperidol, is presented in the following article.