PSYCHIATRIC ASPECTS OF CLINICAL PRACTICE IN GENERAL HOSPITALS: A SURVEY OF NON-PSYCHIATRIC CLINICIANS

The present work was carried out to study the awareness of non-psychiatric clinicians working in a teaching general hospital about the frequency of psychiatric morbidity in their clinical practice, their utilization of psychiatric consultation services, and opinion about utility of liaison psychiatry in general hospitals. A substantial proportion of doctors underestimated the psychiatric morbidity especially about unexplained physical symptoms and specific depressive symptoms in their patients. Psychiatric consultation services were not sufficiently utilised by a large number of clinicians. Most ofthemfelt the need to improve upon undergraduate medical education in psychiatry in India as well as a desire to have consultation - liaison psychiatric units in India.