Comorbid medical illness in psychiatric patients.

Patients with psychiatric illnesses may be at higher risk for the development of certain medical problems. Those with more severe psychiatric illnesses may encounter barriers to promoting good health and to obtaining good health care when comorbid illnesses do occur. This paper reviews some of the recent literature on health care practices and health system access for the mentally ill; HIV care and its relationship to mental disorders; drug interactions between general medical drugs and psychotropics; and certain medical conditions that appear to co-occur more frequently with psychiatric disorders.