Psychologists' sensitivity to medical factors examined during standard psychological evaluations: A preliminary description.

Medical disorders among psychiatric patients have frequently been overlooked by all mental health disciplines. These medical conditions have, at times, been later identified as influencing some of the presenting psychological symptoms. Although the relationship between medical factors and psychological symptoms has been recognized and discussed in the literature for several decades, improvement has not been well documented regarding the frequency of recognizing medical factors with psychiatric patients. Little research was found that reviewed the effectiveness of psychologists in recognizing related medical concerns. This study examined the frequency with which a random sampling of psychologists reviewed specific medical factors with their patients during the initial psychological evaluation. The results reveal that many psychologistsare sensitive to the possible influence of medical factors, which is especially important given the increased focus of psychologists as primary care providers and the increasing collaborative practice efforts between medicine and psychology. A summary and discussion of these descriptive results are presented and recommendations are offered.