EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

Liaison psychiatry or consultation–liaison psychiatry (also known as general hospital psychiatry) deals with psychiatric aspects of physically ill individuals. Occurring both in out-patient and in-patient settings, this specialty within psychiatry has continued to evolve over the last 50 years or so.

In this chapter, Chaturvedi and Thoduguli provide an outline of the history of development of psychiatry and various models which are used. Providing a cultural context, they point out that the patient's perception of their physical disease and means of coping with it are subject to cultural influences in a big way. The treating team's relationship with the patient and carers is likely to be determined by cultural factors. For example, in cultures where clinicians are given tremendous status, the therapeutic relationship may have stronger elements of dependence. In addition, religious and spiritual factors may play a bigger role. Using examples from medical specialties such as cardiology, oncology, nephrology and gynaecology, these authors discuss specific difficulties related to somatization.

Introduction

Consultation–liaison psychiatry is a clinical discipline which deals with biological, psychological and social factors in the causation and management of any disorder, particularly the psychiatric manifestations. The field has its origins in the early nineteenth century, when medicine sought to explain all illnesses as the result of a specific biological cause. Parallel to this was the trend in psychiatry to view the major psychiatric disorders as resulting from biological disturbances.