Referral pattern of neurological patients to psychiatric Consultation-Liaison Services in 33 European hospitals

The referral pattern of neurological patients to 33 European psychiatric co nsultation-liaison (C-L) services in the general hospital was examined. Ana lyses were conducted on the ECLW CS data set, which consists of 14,717 psyc hiatric C-L referrals made in 56 European hospitals during 1991. Psychiatri c referrals of patients admitted to neurological wards were compared to ref errals from other wards. Information was obtained from 33 neurological ward s, consisting of 34,506 neurological admissions. Of these admissions, 839 w ere referred to C-L psychiatry. The median consult rate among the hospitals was 1.8%. Compared to other hospital wards, patients referred from neurolo gy were more frequently diagnosed as suffering from somatoform (P < .01) an d dissociative disorders (P < .01), and less from substance abuse (P < .01) and delirium (P < .01). Referral to C-L psychiatry from neurological wards is characterized by an underestimation of psychiatric co-morbidity and a l ate detection, comparable to other medical specialties. An appeal is made f or a standardized referral procedure including admission screening method, detecting patients at risk for nonstandard care during their hospital admis sion. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.