Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry

Comprehensive Care for Patients with Co-Occurring Psychiatric and Medical Symptoms

At University Hospitals, we provide comprehensive treatment for patients across the continuum of inpatient and outpatient care. This is particularly important for patients with co-occurring psychiatric and medical symptoms.

Psychiatric symptoms are often present in patients receiving medical or surgical care. Symptoms may include:

• Anxiety or depression related to medical issues
• Acute confusion associated with delirium (mental status changes)
• Substance withdrawal during a lengthy hospitalization

Medical and surgical providers may need assistance appropriately evaluating and treating these symptoms. Consultation-liaison psychiatry, or psychosomatic psychiatry, encompasses consultation services for patients, and liaison services for their treating physicians. Within the University Hospitals Department of Psychiatry, our dedicated consultation-liaison (CL) teams provide complex services in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

When consultation-liaison team members are contacted for assistance, patients receive comprehensive, medically informed psychiatric evaluations. These evaluations, and subsequent treatment recommendations, are then shared with the patient’s referring provider or team. Patients can be seen as an inpatient when admitted medically or surgically, or as an outpatient. Outpatient follow-up can be arranged in the Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison Clinic, or in select embedded clinics which are co-located in multiple sites – including psycho-oncology clinics in University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center locations, pre-surgical clinics in various surgery and transplant locations, and women’s mental health clinics located in several University Hospitals MacDonald Women’s Hospital locations.

Whether for patients with pre-existing psychiatric conditions, or for patients who have never seen a mental health provider before, the Department of Psychiatry consultation-liaison teams provide crucial expertise for patients with co-occurring medical and psychiatric symptoms. We partner with our fellow clinicians to treat complex symptoms, educate patients, loved ones and clinical providers about important clinical issues, and continuously strive for innovative approaches to management in order to best serve our patients.

Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship

UH offers a one-year fellowship for clinicians interested in pursuing in-depth clinical training in psychosomatic medicine. Learn more about the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship.