The practice of consultation-liaison psychiatry in Japan

Consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry has been developing for the past 10 years as a new clinical service field in Japan. Although this kind of service had been practiced previously, it was not recognized as an independent clinical field. Still in the developing phase, clinical research in C-L psychiatry has been reported, although its quality has been variable. The authors describe the development and a typology of C-L psychiatry (seven types) in Japan. This article reports time spent on C-L psychiatry activity in a general hospital. Although C-L psychiatry requires much time and labor, hardly any of the C-L psychiatry services are reimbursed in the Japanese insurance system. The authors propose a "new department" as one option to continue providing C-L psychiatry service to general hospital patients and for further development of C-L psychiatry in Japan.