Research strategies at the interface of medicine and psychiatry

The rapid growth of the neurosciences in the past decade has served to blur the differences and enhance the similarities between research in medicine and in psychiatry. As the number of relevant biological variables and the questions asked in relation to them has expanded, so has the number of medical disorders of interest to the clinical researcher in psychiatry. In addition to these new areas of common interest, consultation-liaison psychiatry and clinical psychiatric research share a common conceptual foundation based upon model development and testing. It is proposed, therefore, that research at the interface between medicine and psychiatry represents a new frontier for both consultation-liaison psychiatry and clinical psychiatric research. Goals and strategies for research at the interface are discussed with specific reference to current research efforts at the National Institutes of Health.