Liaison psychiatry in an Indian general hospital.

Patterns and the "dynamics" of the psychiatric referral process in a postgraduate teaching general hospital in India have been studied and compared with the trends in the West. The overall referral rate was 1.48%. On the whole, it is not simply the problem of "organic" versus "functional" diagnosis or abnormal behavior that are referred for psychiatric opinion. A large variety of other clinical problems are referred as well. Most of these problems could be tackled by simple measures like advice to the treating team, use of drugs, and supportive psychotherapy in the respective wards.