Consultation-Liaison psychiatric service delivery: results from a Europeanstudy

The reported Endings of the European Consultation-Liaison Workgroup (ECLW) Collaborative Study describe consultation-liaison service delivery by 56 se rvices from ZI European countries aggregated on a C-L service level. During the period of 1 year (1991), the participants applied a standardized, reli ability tested method of patient data collection, and data were collected d escribing pertinent characteristics of the hospital, the C-L service, and t he participating consultants. The consultation rate of 1% (median; 1.4% mea n) underscores the discrepancy between epidemiology and the services delive red. The core function of C-L services in general hospitals is a quick comp rehensive emergency psychiatric function. Reasons to see patients were the following. deliberate self-harm (17%), substance abuse (7.2%), current psyc hiatric symptoms (38.6%), and unexplained physical complaints (18.6%) (all means). A significant number of patients are old and seriously ill. Mood di sorders and organic mental disorders are most predominant (17.7%). Somatofo rm and dissociative disorders together constitute 7.5%. C-L services in Eur opean countries are mainly emergency psychiatric services and perform an im portant bridge function between primary, general health, and mental health care. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science inc. All rights reserved.