Fundamentals of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry

Book excerpt: Although consultation liaison (CL) psychiatry has been practiced informally for many years, it has been recognized as a psychiatry subspecialty for less than two decades. This textbook addresses the important interface between the wide range of medical or surgical conditions and comorbid psychiatric disorders encountered in most hospital settings as well as outpatient sites. Because many patients admitted to a general hospital may have one or more psychiatric conditions that require attention and treatment to facilitate their recovery, this book will be an essential addition to any CL psychiatrist's library; it will be equally useful for consultation liaison psychiatry fellows, psychiatry residents, general psychiatrists who are interested in CL psychiatry or who perform psychiatric consultations from time to time, medical students on their CL psychiatry clerkships, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and attending neurologists and neurology residents and fellows.This book includes chapters that address the most prevalent, as well as rare medical conditions found among hospitalized patients and reviews assessment and treatment of the co-occurring psychiatric condition. For example, the Heart Disease chapter addresses patients' responses to a new, potentially life-threatening cardiac event, and explains the essential steps and interventions a CL consultant should take to optimize patient care and safety - as well as ways to help the care team to better understand and manage their own stress. Other chapters, among a total of 24, include Women's Health, Ethical and Legal Issues, and Eating Disorders. In addition, this book covers new areas or ones that are rarely or less comprehensively addressed in other CL texts, among them: Vulnerable Populations (including sections on psychiatric assessment and care of veterans, refugees, prisoners, LGBTQ-identified patients, and elders), Quality and Outcomes, Collaborative Care, and Telepsychiatry. This text includes more than 60 tables, and each chapter includes five multiple choice study questions with annotated answers. As a stand-alone reference, it is an inclusive, up-to-date, and state-of-the art database for this exciting and essential subspecialty. When paired with its sister text, Fundamentals of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry: Neuropsychiatry, these two volumes will empower readers to more precisely and comprehensively assess and treat medical or surgical patients suffering with one or more psychiatric conditions that may be adversely affecting their health and recovery.