Consultation-liaison psychiatrists work collaboratively with four groups of “complex medically ill” patients, Dr. Lyketsos, Dr. Levenson, and associates wrote a few years ago while advocating on behalf of the subspecialty. They treat patients with comorbid psychiatric and general medical illness; those with psychiatric illness directly tied to a primary medical condition, such as dementia or delirium; those with “complex illness behavior such as ‘somatoform’ disorders”; and those admitted to medical-surgical units after incidents such as attempted suicide. Consultation-liaison psychiatrists, who typically work in teaching hospitals, tend to provide services that are reactive – emergent or urgent (Eur J Psychiatry. 2006;20[3]:165-71).
Some think the field is limited to inpatient consultations, but it encompasses a “spectrum of physicians working at the interface between psychiatry and the other medical specialties, including many outpatient settings,” wrote Robert J. Boland, MD, academy President James R. Rundell, MD, and their associates (Psychosomatics. 2017. doi: 10.1016/j.psym.2017.11.006).
“Clinicians in consultation-liaison psychiatry face a wide breadth of conundrums and controversies in all areas of practice,” Dr. Rundell wrote in a recent newsletter. In addition to raising awareness among patients and medical-surgical colleagues, Dr. Rundell said, the academy hopes to educate other psychiatrists about the scope of consultation-liaison psychiatry.
The change will go into effect April 15.