Practical strategies for assessing and stabilizing bipolar patients in urgent situations.

For patients with bipolar disorder in urgent situations, psychiatric and nonpsychiatric clinicians should employ practical approaches to achieve optimum outcomes and ensure safe and rapid reduction of symptoms, such as considering the treatment setting, clinician-patient relationship, and the severity of the patient's symptoms. Because biological, psychological, and social factors affect both the development and the treatment of acute bipolar states, treatment should address each factor to manage the illness.