Also referred to as consultant-liaison psychiatry or psychosomatic medicine, Med Psych is a subspecialty of psychiatry that focuses on the care of patients while they are in a hospital unit. Med Psych is also interested in the advancement of medical science and the provision of healthcare for patients experiencing medical and psychiatric conditions.

 

Medical clinicians use psychological theories and principles to help improve the biopsychosocial health of patients with physical illness. These clinicians are often from the field of psychiatry, psychology, advanced practice nursing, and social work and work in hospitals (Dobmeyer, 2018). Med Psych clinicians often use interventions, including cognitive, behavioral, and interpersonal psychotherapy and family therapy, to assist patients in managing chronic illness, improving physical symptoms of disease or treatment, and managing the psychological and emotional aspects of their illness (King, 2013).

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The Medpsych clinician needs to have extensive clinical knowledge and understanding of diverse medical disorders and their effect on a patient’s mental and behavioral status. Also, these clinicians must also have extensive knowledge of psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatments who also have complex medical conditions. This requires knowledge and experience of efficacy, side effects, and possible drug interactions between general medications and psychiatric medications.

 

As much as 30% of patients being treated in a general medical settings experience psychiatric symptoms. Delirium is seen in 10% of all medical inpatients and 30% in certain high-risk patient cohorts. Two-thirds of high-frequency users of medical services have a psychiatric disorder, most commonly depression (23%), anxiety (22%), and somatic symptom disorder (formerly somatization disorder) (20%) (Ostermeyer, 2017).