[Liaison psychiatry. An analytic view using the example of a German university hospital].

OBJECTIVE: Analysis of liaison psychiatry cases of a university hospital.
METHODS: Descriptive analysis on the basis of all psychiatric consultations realized in the year 2008 at the university hospital of Erlangen.
RESULTS: About 1% of all patients with somatic diseases receive a psychiatric treatment by the liaison psychiatry at the same time. Suspected and final diagnosis of correspond in only one third of cases. The diagnoses are focused on only a few diseases. Suicidality is confirmed in a small number of cases. Most commonly a medicamentous treatment is recommended, above all antidepressant and typical neuroleptics.
CONCLUSIONS: The interdisciplinary treatment of patients with somatic diseases by the liaison psychiatry is an increasingly used instrument of other disciplines and serves to optimize the diagnostic and therapeutic efficiency of public health. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.