Medical Screening of Adult Psychiatric Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department

The authors aim to evaluate and categorize the existing literature on medical screening practices for adult psychiatric patients presenting to emergency departments. Through a scoping review of 145 publications, they identified eight key themes in medical screening, with a notable emphasis on laboratory testing, history taking, and vital sign assessment. The findings highlight the need for high-quality prospective studies to better assess the diagnostic accuracy of these practices, as current recommendations largely discourage routine laboratory testing.