Psychiatric interventions in the medically ill. Outcome and effectiveness research.

This article reviews the current status and emerging trends of outcome data from research studies of psychiatric and psychosocial interventions for mental disorders in patients in the general medical sector. Although data from such studies have had limited success to date in influencing health policy, legislators and administrators are increasingly likely to turn to outcome data to inform their decisions. The impact of psychiatric disorders, the recognition and treatment or referral of psychiatric-disordered patients by general medical practitioners, and the outcome results of psychiatric intervention programs are examined for both the inpatient and outpatient general medical sectors.