Liaison psychiatry: Which psychiatry, for which liaison?

The term of "liasion psychiatry" is used for a wide range of medical practices The liaison psychiatry is the exercise 01 psychiatry in general hospitals with patients hospitalised in somatic care departments full time hospitalisation. stays. emergency units. and outpatient's consultations It also aims to help care givers and medical institutions Liaison psychiatry works in collaboration with psychologists Liaison psychiatry is supposed to answer two requests one from the patient and the other from the caregivers or then institution The psychiatrist list is supposed to have polyvalent abilities colic:ell-ling the entire psychiatric spectrum. as well as an in depth knowledge of links between somatic and psychological symptoms He is also required to have an expertise in some specific medical fields essentially in specialised medical or surgical department recruitments in the hospital he works in The liaison psychiatrist is confronted to numerous difficulties. essentially due to his external position concerning the medical departments Generally psychiatry is conceived as pail of the institution's set vices A good example of these difficulties has been provided by the psychiatric care given to suicidal patients who have ingested caustic products Psychiatry liaison will expand in the future Today the limited number of doctors allowed to practise in French hospitals essentially limits it (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS All rights reserved