Handbook of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry - by Hoyle Leigh & Jon Streltzer (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Consultation-liaison psychiatry is an important interface between psychiatry and the rest of medicine as well as psychology, social work, nursing, and other behavioral science disciplines. This book is a practical, up-to-date handbook providing a biopsychosocial, integrative perspective and drawing the expertise of two renowned psychiatrists in the field. It is organized in five major sections addressing the fundamentals of the field as well as including an assessment of where the field is today. Chapters also address specific pathologies and populations. The book provides a good balance of theoretical and practical information. It further contains specific instructions for consultation procedures, downloadable forms, and relaxation techniques.

From the Back Cover

Linking the medical and psychological components of a patient's condition, facilitating communication among patients, doctors, families, and hospital systems, consultation-liaison work has emerged as one of the most challenging of psychiatric skills. The Handbook of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry takes a practical biopsychosocial approach to helping readers navigate this complex terrain.

The authors and their 17 colleagues emphasize the flexibility CL practice demands, the team setting it entails, and the clinical and empathy skills it requires. Early chapters trace the roots of psychosomatic medicine and consultation-liaison psychiatry, the nature of psychiatric diagnosis, and explain the clinical, educational, administrative, and research functions of CL psychiatry, and walk the reader through the basics of psychiatric consultation. They discuss common reasons for psychiatric consultation and the immediate management of urgent conditions such as agitation and suicidal behavior. From there, chapters feature case vignettes, practice guidelines, and specific information on topics as varied as postpartum depression, withdrawal symptoms, and chronic pain. And in keeping with this real-world orientation, contributors identify cultural issues, analyze ethical concerns, and flag the potential conflicts of interest that practitioners must recognize and prevent for successful practice.

Highlights of the coverage:

• Foundations of the field--origins of CL psychiatry, an evolutionary, gene-environment interactional model of psychiatric illness, reasons for consultation, empirical findings on CL psychiatry.
• A downloadable Consultation Database that automatically generates consultation reports.
• Psychiatric conditions--anxiety, depression, psychosis, somatoform disorders, pain, PTSD, substance abuse, delirium and dementia.
• Medical settings and issues--ICU, palliative care, emergency care, outpatient, ethical issues, competency, emergency hold.
• Special populations--children/adolescents, geriatric patients, immune-compromised patients, kidney and liver diseased patients, pregnant patients.
• Key techniques--interviewing, psychopharmacology, detoxification, relaxation methods (including hypnosis), and more.

With this depth and scope, the Handbook offers a wealth of insights and ideas to psychiatrists, primary care physicians, psychiatric and primary care residents, medical students, behavioral medicine specialists, and others who are interested in managing emotional aspects of medical patients, and providing biopsychosocial care. Its accessibility makes it an outstanding text for advanced students in health psychology and behavioral medicine, and a reliable reference for professionals in related health fields.

http: //blogs.springer.com/consultation-liaison to discuss the topic with the Editors!

Review Quotes

"... a remarkably complete and useful desktop book ... should be required reading for most clinicians whose practice involves the interface of psychiatric and hospital-based medicine ... a useful text for virtually all psychiatrists and psychiatric residents ... exceedingly valuable for hospital attending and primary care physicians who do not have ready access to psychiatric consultants, particularly in the emergency department setting...." -Mark H. Fleisher, M.D., University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Omaha

About the Author

Hoyle Leigh, MD, is Professor Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of a number of books on consultation-liaison psychiatry and behavioral sciences, including "The Patient: Biological, Psychological, and Social Dimensions of medical Practice" (Plenum/Kluwer, three editions). Previously, he was Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University where he established the Yale Behavioral Medicine Clinic that pioneered the field of behavioral medicine.

Jon Streltzer, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at University of Hawaii. He is renowned for his work in cultural psychiatry, psychonephrology, and chronic pain. He is a co-author of "Culture and Psychopathology: Guidelines for Clinical Assessment" and "Culture and Psychotherapy: A Guide to Clinical Practice."