Liaison psychiatry - is it possible?

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (CLP) deals with clinical, research and training activities at the interface between psychiatry and the rest of medicine, most typically medical-psychiatric comorbidities, in the conceptual frame of the bio-psycho-social paradigm. It developed gradually during the 20th century around the world, as dramatic changes in the conceptualization and the clinical management of mental illness were taking place, and operates typically in the General Hospital and in Primary Care. The main clinical competencies of CLP include medical-psychiatric comorbidity (co-existing psychiatric and non-psychiatric disorders affecting reciprocally); medically unexplained physical symptoms, “somatization” and functional disorders; and liaison activities, addressed to medical workers and teams. CLP may effectively impact on prognosis of medical illnesses and consequently on quality of life, disability, use of health care resources. Furthermore, research in the field of CLP and psychosomatic medicine may massively contribute to the understanding of the aetiology of mental illness, by adoption of a translational, interdisciplinary perspective.