Psychiatric liaison consultations of patients without psychiatric illness in a general hospital in Germany: a retrospective analysis

The aim of the study was to explore the utilization of consultation-liaison psychiatric (CLP) service among nonpsychiatric patients in a general hospital. A retrospective analysis was conducted on all patients seen by the CLP in 2013. In 66 (5.9 %) of these 1112 consultations, no psychiatric diagnosis could be identified. These cases were analyzed by department of referral, assumed psychiatric symptoms, consensus with the symptoms found by the CLP, and recommended procedures. Assumed depressive symptoms, suicidal ideations and “difficult” behavior were the predominant reasons for CLP referrals. As the results suggest, CLP service was mostly “overprovided” because of uncertainty about the working areas of psychiatrists or overestimation of the severity of symptoms. These findings emphasize the importance to develop more precise guidelines for CLP services and that it could be worth striving for a more profound psychiatric training for nonpsychiatric physicians to achieve an optimal treatment for patients.