Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients admitted to the consultation-liaison psychiatry clinic in a university hospital

Abstract

Consultation-liaison psychiatry is an area of psychiatry researching the links between general medicine and psychosocial situations, and deals with the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of psychiatric disorders and psychosocial problems accompanying physical diseases. The aim of this study is to review the sociodemographic data and treatment approaches for patients admitted to the consultation-liaison psychiatry unit of a university hospital within one year. The sociodemographic and clinical information for patients admitted to the consultation-liaison psychiatry unit of our hospitalÂ’s psychiatry ward from August 2015 to November 2016 were obtained by retrospectively investigating the hospital database and patient files and uploading the information to a structured form. Patients in the psychiatry ward were admitted by transfer with 64.9% from the clinic, 16.2% from the emergency service and 10.8% from other wards. The most common physical disease diagnosis of patients was neurologic diseases for 51.4%, endocrinologic diseases for 16.2% and other disease groups for 21.6%. The incidence of psychiatric diagnoses placed according to DSM-V were identified, in order, as psychotic disorders (18.9%), depressive disorders (16.2%), mental retardation (13.5%), somatic symptom disorders (13.5%), bipolar disorder (10.8%), personality disorders (8.1%), oppositional disorder (5.4%), anxiety disorders (5.4%), impulse control and behavior disorders (5.4%) and neurocognitive disorders (2.7%). A total of 10.8% of patients had suicidal thoughts, with 8.1% passive and 2.7% active. Inpatients admitted to our CLP unit, a high rate of 10.8% was identified to have suicidal thoughts. The association of increased suicide risk with many medical diseases shows the necessity of enquiring about suicidal thoughts for each patient. Cooperation between other clinics and CLP will be helpful in increasing the quality of service and offering a more holistic approach to these patients. It appears there is a need for broader cooperation in the area of consultation liaison. This data is considered to form a basis for future studies.