Paucis Verbis: Chemical sedation for severe agitation

In the Emergency Department, some patients present very acutely and aggressively agitated. This is usually the result of illicit drug use or a schizophrenic who hasn't been taking medications (or both!). Fortunately, we have an arsenal of medications to help sedate the patient, as reviewed in a previous Tricks of the Trade post .

One study looked to answer the question of what single IM sedation agent is most effective, as measured by the shortest time to sedation and time to arousal.