ABSTRACT
Consultation-liaison psychiatry has emerged as an important sub-specialty in the general hospital setting during recent years as a result of psychiatric acute wards moving into these hospitals. This has inspired the need for better structured research to establish its relevance and effectiveness. We, therefore, carried out a prospective cohort study at King Fahad General Hospital. We report the interaction of sociodemographic, clinical and diagnostic factors, time lag of referral and diagnostic ability of referring physicians. A total of 206 patients were referred over a period of 6 months. Sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic skills of the referring doctors were found to be generally poor, particularly for anxiety
Subject(s)
Humans , Psychiatry , Psychotherapy , Physicians/psychology , Prospective Studies , Sensitivity and Specificity , AnxietyABSTRACT
To assess the attitude and knowledge of physicians and patients towards psychiatry, we asked 115 referring doctors and 188 referred patients to complete questionnaires. We examined the results along with the referral rates to try to identify factors that may affect a consultation-liaison psychiatry service. Generally, knowledge was poor and attitudes towards psychiatry negative in both groups. This negatively influenced the referral rates and reflected the lack of integration of psychiatry and medicine at the training level. This is an indication that psychiatrists need to work in collaboration with hospital doctors to integrate psychiatry into medicine at all levels and emphasizes the priority of education of hospital staff, patients and the community in consultation-liaison psychiatry