Patterns of psychiatric consultation in a Chinese general hospital

The authors conducted a study of psychiatric consultation in a Chinese general hospital. Seventy-five inpatients (0.74% of the patients in the hospital) were referred by different services over a 1-year period. Internal medicine referred the most patients, and organic brain syndromes were the most common diagnoses. Depression was not a frequent diagnosis, but neurasthenia was a fairly common one. None of the referred patients had a diagnosis of alcoholism, drug abuse, or personality disorder. The authors compare these data with those of Western studies and discuss the possible factors influencing psychiatric consultation in China.