Psychosomatics 1994; 35:569-573
Copyright © 1994 by Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH REPORTS |
The relationship of psychosomatic medicine to consultation-liaison psychiatry
M Rosenbaum and T McCarty
Department of Psychiatry, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque.
Consultation-liaison psychiatry arose in the mid-1960s from the matrix of
psychoanalytically oriented psychosomatic medicine. The influence of
psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically trained academic psychiatrists
gradually waned. The liaison aspect of consultation-liaison psychiatry
faded in the early 1980s, and most consultation-liaison services are now
primarily high-quality consultation services that contribute much to
university teaching hospitals. The consultation-liaison service at the
University of New Mexico (UNM) and several others have eliminated the term
"liaison." The consultation service at UNM sees relatively few patients
with classic psychosomatic disorders. The majority of requests to UNM's
consultation service relate to suicide attempts, delirium, complicated
medical problems with psychiatric illness, substance abuse, burns, trauma,
and competency evaluations.
