Psychiatric consultations in a general hospital. A report on 1,000 referrals

1,000 medical and surgical inpatients referred for psychiatric conSULTATION SHOWED CONCURRENT PHYSICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER IN 68.2% of cases. This is in accordance with epidemiological findings that these two types of morbidity have a positive association and coexist in 20-50% of patients. Depression was the commonest psychiatric disorder in all classes of organic disease and accounted for 53% of all psychiatric diagnoses. Organic brain syndromes, acute and chronic constituted 18% of referrals. Almost twice as many women as men were referred despite their nearly equal distribution in hospital population. One-third of the females had no positive medical diagnosis compared to one-fifth of the men. Alcoholism was a major problem in 8.9% of referrals. 7.8% of patients were referred following suicidal attempt. Of the 50 patients with cancer. 66% had depression. Too few medical patients with psychiatric complications are referred and adequately treated. Greater emphasis on teaching psychiatric syndromes is called for. Psychiatric consultation-liaison services offer the most direct form of collaboration between psychiatry and medicine in the interests of comprehensive patient care.