Psychiatric liaison on a neoplastic inpatient service.

Abstract

Psychiatric liaison on an inpatient neoplastic service provides unique opportunities for medical and nursing staff to gain psychological understanding of patients in general and to improve communication for the welfare of the patient. The natural anxiety generated by facing dying patients can work as a catalyst in bridging the conceptual gap between medicine and psychiatry. The psychiatrist can point out in a group setting that such anxiety is shared by everyone, including the psychiatrist. The anxiety-provoking dilemma to tell or not to tell the “truth” to cancer patients should depend on an accurate understanding of the patients' communications. “Telling the truth” does not always relieve the physician's anxiety; many doctors feel more uncomfortable and more avoidant of the patient afterwards because they are unprepared to deal frankly with the topic of death once it has been exposed.