Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:31:45.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Psychiatrist in the Terminal Care Unit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Averil Stedeford
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Sidney Bloch
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford

Summary

The types of problems of 49 patients referred to a psychiatrist in a terminal care unit are reported and their management reviewed. The findings suggest that a psychiatrist can play a useful role in such a unit, particularly in supervising medical and nursing staff in the psychological care of patients and in helping more directly in the management of psychiatrically complicated cases.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Craig, T. J. & Abeloff, M. D. (1974) Psychiatric symptomatology among hospitalized cancer patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 1323–7.Google Scholar
Fleminger, J. J. & Mallett, B. L. (1962) Psychiatric referrals from medical and surgical wards. Journal of Mental Science, 108, 183–92.Google Scholar
Hinton, J. (1963) The physical and mental distress of the dying. Quarterly Journal of Medicine, 32, 121.Google Scholar
Hinton, J. (1972) Psychiatric consultation in fatal illness. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 65, 1035–8.Google Scholar
Lack, S. A. (1976) Philosophy and organization of a hospice program. In Psychosocial Care of the Dying Patient (ed. Garfield, C.). San Francisco: University of California.Google Scholar
Leigh, H. (1973) Psychiatric liaison on a neoplastic inpatient service. Psychiatry in Medicine, 4, 147–54.Google Scholar
Lipowski, Z. (1967) Review of consultation psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine I: general principles. Psychosomatic Medicine, 29, 201–24.Google Scholar
Payne, E. C. & Krant, M. J. (1969) The psychosocial aspects of advanced cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association, 210, 1238–42.Google Scholar
Saunders, C. (1972) A therapeutic community: St Christopher's Hospice. In Psychosocial Aspects of Terminal Care (ed. Schoenberg, B., Carr, A., Peretz, D. and Kutscher, A.). New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Twycross, R. G. & Wald, S. J. (1976) Long-term use of diamorphine in advanced cancer. Advances in Pain Research and Therapy, 1, 653–61.Google Scholar
Weissman, A. D. & Worden, J. W. (1976–77) The existential plight in cancer: Significance of the first 100 days. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 7, 115.Google Scholar
White, W. & Bloch, S. (1970) Psychiatric referrals in a general hospital. Medical Journal of Australia, 1, 950–4.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.