Management of Emotional Reactions in Seriously Burned Adults

Abstract

To observe their types of emotional problems and the management problems that they present to attending physicians, seriously burned adult patients received a psychiatric evaluation and were followed closely throughout their hospital course. Reactions such as anxiety, depression, regression and fear of deformity were noted in nearly all patients at some time during the hospital course, and a smaller number became serious management problems owing to delirium. If he has some insight into the nature and causes of these reactions, the attending physician can usually handle them without psychiatric consultation.