ABSTRACT
Psychosis is an abnormal state of mind that leads to losing touch with reality. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, amongst other features. Psychosis is known to increase the risk of other health conditions and may have serious adverse outcomes. This is a case report of a 26-year-old woman with no previous psychiatric history who presented with symptoms and signs suggestive of acute psychosis shortly after starting a postprocedural combination of antimicrobials. The patient's family decided to stop the antimicrobials as they observed an escalation of the psychotic symptoms with the ongoing use of antibiotics. The patient was subsequently brought to the emergency service (EMS) department, and she was admitted to the behavioral health unit. The treatment team managed to stabilize the patient with several interventions, including the administration of antianxiety and antipsychotic medications along with psychosocial intervention. The symptoms of psychosis resolved within 3-4 days, and she was discharged home. Even though transient psychotic episodes have been reported previously with antibiotics, this case emphasizes the increased need for vigilance and reporting in patients receiving antimicrobials.
ABSTRACT
Bipolar disorder is a mental health disorder where the patient experiences extreme shifts in mood marked by depression, mania, or hypomania. It affects their overall daily life activities and sleep patterns. This case report is of a 74-year-old female patient with bipolar disorder who experienced a manic episode after initiation of antibiotics to treat gallbladder perforation with abscess formation. The patient's past medical history included Parkinson's disease, diabetes mellitus, bipolar disorder, and acalculous cholecystitis. The patient required hospitalization for a cholecystostomy tube insertion for drainage. During hospitalization, the patient was started on empiric treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics, including piperacillin/tazobactam and metronidazole. The patient remained stable during the inpatient stay and was discharged home one week later. She was prescribed cefuroxime and metronidazole to complete a 2-week duration of antibiotics. However, upon discharge, she developed manic symptoms, including lack of need to sleep, excessive talking, and severe agitation. Upon assessment, the psychiatric team decided to hold metronidazole as it has an adverse effect of mania as evidenced in drug information resources. The patient started to show immediate recovery from the symptoms with complete resolution of manic symptoms on the 3rd day following the discontinuation of metronidazole. This case emphasizes the increased need for vigilance in bipolar patients upon prescribing metronidazole. Also, further research is needed to predict the time to onset of manic symptoms and improvement in patient symptoms upon drug discontinuation.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The newly emerged coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has collapsed the entire global health care system. Due to these settings, a lot of strategic changes are adopted by healthcare facilities to ensure continuity in patient-centered services. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of structural and operational changes made in ambulatory care pharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A retrospective comparative study was conducted to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of patient-centered interventions and consequent access to medication management care within Johns Hopkins Aramco Health Care ambulatory care pharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing patient-centered key performance indicators before and during COVID-19 pandemic for a total of 4 months. RESULTS: As a result of the structural and operational changes made in patient-centered ambulatory care pharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic, a 48% prescriptions requests and 90% prescriptions fills are increased through online health portal application. A three-fold increase in the pharmacy call center utilization resulted in around 10% abandoned calls. In the number of physical visits to ambulatory care pharmacies, a 37% reduction was also noted. The decrease in staff schedule efficiency and an increase in average prescription waiting time were also noticed. The prescription collection through remote area pick up locations, and medication home delivery services were successful during COVID-19 pandemic as supported by statistical data. CONCLUSION: The access to ambulatory care pharmacy services during COVID-19 pandemic has been successfully maintained via medication home delivery, remote area pickup locations, pharmacy call-center consultations and refill requests, online health portal application services, and other measures, while reducing the number of physical visits to the JHAH hospital/clinic to ensure compliance with infection control and prevention measures.
