ArticleBJPsych open2023
Use of 'acute behavioural disturbance' in mental health records: differences over time and by ethnicity in a London NHS mental health Trust.
Article in BJPsych open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Decision-making and acute behavioural disturbance (ABD): a qualitative thematic analysis of perspectives on decision-making by UK ambulance paramedics.BMC emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Acute behavioural disturbance: what's in a name?BJPsych open · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAcute behavioural disturbance (ABD) is a controversial descriptor for presentations of severe agitation, aggression and physiological compromise.
aimsTo characterise the use of ABD-related terms in the electronic record of a large UK provider of mental health services during 2006-2021.
methodThe free text of all records relating to patient contacts with acute assessment mental health teams during 2006-2021 were searched for references to ABD. Identified text was coded for context of use and presence of clinical features of ABD described in the literature. Poisson regression was used to analyse differences in rates of use over time and between demographic groups.
resultsMentions of ABD increased by an average of 1.12 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.08-1.17) per year, with the greatest increase from 2019 to 2021. Black people were more than twice as likely as White people to have reference to ABD included in their assessments (rate: 2.4/1000 (95% CI 1.8-3.1) in Black people compared with 1.0/1000 (95% CI 0.8-1.3) in White people). The clinical characteristics in notes describing a current presentation of ABD rarely corresponded to those included in UK medical guidelines on ABD.
conclusionsThe term ABD in mental health notes appears to often, but not exclusively, be a synonym for severe agitation and conveys little meaning beyond this. However, the term's connection to a literature emphasising the high risk of physical health collapse and need for urgent treatment means that its disproportionate use in Black people may contribute to existing racial inequalities in the use of coercive measures during crisis presentations.
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