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In-patient liaison psychiatry in the UK

A neglected option for improving the psychiatric care of medical patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David Protheroe  and
Allan House
David Protheroe*
Affiliation:
The Northern Hospital, 185 Cooper Street Epping 3051, Victoria, Australia
Allan House
Affiliation:
Department of Liaison Psychiatry, Leeds General Infirmary, Great George Street Leeds LS1 3EX
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

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Aims and method

We argue the case for In-patient liaison psychiatry In the UK. We undertook a case note review of the characteristics of a consecutive series of in-patient and day patient admissions to a specialist liaison psychiatry unit in Leeds. We reviewed the literature on in-patient units for the treatment of similar patients, most of which came from the USA.

Results

Physical morbidity was high in the sample. Forty-four per cent had been admitted for physical problems in the year before admission to the unit. Twenty-three per cent were taking five or more drugs for physical disorders at the time of admission, 86% were not in paid employment at the time of admission. Treatment involved integrating treatment for physical Illness, and physical and psychosocial treatments for mental disorder. We identified no reports of in-patient units in the UK doing similar work.

Clinical implications

In-patient liaison psychiatry is neglected in the UK, to the detriment of a small but important group of patients with coexistent severe physical and mental disorder.

Type
Original Papers
Information
Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 23 , Issue 9: The Journal of Trends in Psychiatric Practice , September 1999 , pp. 525 - 527
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

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