Accuracy of referring psychiatric diagnosis on a consultation-liaison service

The authors determined the accuracy of the initial psychiatric diagnosis of primary medical providers requesting psychiatric consultation in a general medical inpatient setting. A retrospective review of 346 consecutive psychiatric consultations was conducted in which the initial diagnostic impression of primary medical providers was compared with the final psychiatric diagnosis. Accuracy rates for cognitive disorders, substance use disorders, and depressive disorders were 100%, 88.9%, and 53.6%, respectively. Thus, initial diagnoses of a cognitive or substance use disorder by primary medical providers are likely to be accurate, whereas an initial diagnosis of a depressive disorder will be inaccurate in approximately half of the cases.