Review of consultation psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. 1. General principles. Psychosom Med

The scope and functions of consultation psychiatry in general hospitals are reviewed, and some of the difficulties encountered are pointed out. A consulta-tion service has a vital role in contributing to improved patient care on the medical wards and to the teaching of the nonpsychiatric health professions. The value of these activities is conceptualized from the viewpoints of preventive psychiatry and applied psychosomatic medicine. VJNE OF THE MOST significant develop-ments in American psychiatry since World War II has been the growth of general-hospital psychiatric units. Sev-eral excellent books39'4781 have been devoted to this subject, but they do not attempt to evaluate specifically the im-portance of this development for psycho-somatic medicine. Most relevant to the latter is consultation or liaison work carried out by psychiatrists in the non-psychiatric departments of a general hospital. This consultative activity is one of the chief functions, as well as an outgrowth, of the psychiatric units. Kaufman, one of the pioneers in this field, calls liaison psychiatry "the most significant division for the role of psy-chiatrists in a general hospital."38 Ther