Consultation-liaison psychiatry remains the guardian of holistic approach to the patient and consultation services in general hospital could therefore be referred to as“filters”for mental health care,in particular f...Consultation-liaison psychiatry remains the guardian of holistic approach to the patient and consultation services in general hospital could therefore be referred to as“filters”for mental health care,in particular for patients with minor depressive or anxiety disorders.It is worth noting that psychiatric disorders,even when sub-clinical,worsen outcome whereas their early detection and treatment reduce health care costs significantly.The present study was transversal,exploratory,and descriptive in order to investigate the sample of outpatients referred from general practitioners(GP)to service of consultation-liaison psychiatry of the ASST Great Metropolitan Hospital Niguarda of Milan over a 7-months period.Data from all psychiatric consultations for outpatients were collected by a structured clinical report including socio-demographic features,features of referrals,and features of back-referrals.Five hundred and eleven consultations were performed.Participants were mainly female(58.7%)with an average age between 45 and 55 years(27.6%);31.1%of these patients was at the first contact with a mental health specialist.The diagnoses formulated were distributed as follows:The most common diagnoses were affective disorders(44.6%),followed by neurotic disorders(34.1%),personality disorders(6.8%),and finally,psychosis(6.2%).The study showed an example of a consultation-liaison service situated in a Great Metropolitan Hospital offering to GP the opportunity of a diagnostic assessment and shared management of minor psychiatric disorders.This approach could lead to several vantages,such as the management in a non-psychiatric setting of patients with reduction of stigma and reduced costs for specific psychiatric services where are referred more severe patients.展开更多
文摘Consultation-liaison psychiatry remains the guardian of holistic approach to the patient and consultation services in general hospital could therefore be referred to as“filters”for mental health care,in particular for patients with minor depressive or anxiety disorders.It is worth noting that psychiatric disorders,even when sub-clinical,worsen outcome whereas their early detection and treatment reduce health care costs significantly.The present study was transversal,exploratory,and descriptive in order to investigate the sample of outpatients referred from general practitioners(GP)to service of consultation-liaison psychiatry of the ASST Great Metropolitan Hospital Niguarda of Milan over a 7-months period.Data from all psychiatric consultations for outpatients were collected by a structured clinical report including socio-demographic features,features of referrals,and features of back-referrals.Five hundred and eleven consultations were performed.Participants were mainly female(58.7%)with an average age between 45 and 55 years(27.6%);31.1%of these patients was at the first contact with a mental health specialist.The diagnoses formulated were distributed as follows:The most common diagnoses were affective disorders(44.6%),followed by neurotic disorders(34.1%),personality disorders(6.8%),and finally,psychosis(6.2%).The study showed an example of a consultation-liaison service situated in a Great Metropolitan Hospital offering to GP the opportunity of a diagnostic assessment and shared management of minor psychiatric disorders.This approach could lead to several vantages,such as the management in a non-psychiatric setting of patients with reduction of stigma and reduced costs for specific psychiatric services where are referred more severe patients.
