SCIENCE@home

Prescribing antibiotics to acutely ill psychiatric patients with urine analysis indicative of infection

Michael W Huang,Alfredo Bellon

Published 2026 in World Journal of Psychiatry

ABSTRACT

Diagnosing urinary tract infections (UTIs) in acutely ill psychiatric patients is often complicated by their inability to reliably report UTI symptoms in the context of overwhelming psychiatric symptoms, like psychosis or mania. A urine analysis suggesting an infection without clinical complaints from patients would indicate asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB). Current guidelines recommend against screening for or treating ASB in all but a few select populations. However, emerging evidence suggests increased prevalence of UTIs among acutely ill psychiatric patients, and UTIs may be contributing to the relapse or severity of psychiatric symptoms. Individuals with acute psychiatric illnesses have not been considered as a special population for the treatment of ASB. Given the potential risks of untreated infections contributing to psychiatric illnesses and the limitations of relying on subjective symptom reporting in this population, we believe that all ASB should be treated in acutely ill psychiatric patients. We also call for this population to be considered as a special population for additional study to assess whether screening for or treating ASB may improve outcomes.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-20 of 20 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

  • No citing papers are available for this paper.

Showing 0-0 of 0 citing papers · Page 1 of 1