Psychiatry Consult/Liaison

This elective trains you to understand the consequences of substance use on a range of clinical conditions, and to communicate those consequences to patients and their families.

You’ll perform psychiatric consultations and present them to the consultation-liaison team. You’ll learn how to treat withdrawal symptoms in the context of a medical condition while recognizing potential drug-drug interactions.

Working in both an inpatient and outpatient setting, you’ll train alongside psychiatry residents and collaborate with a multidisciplinary team.

Over four weeks, you’ll observe and practice:

• crisis intervention
• brief psychotherapy and family intervention
• patient education
• referral in hospitalized patients
  

• 2-4 new patients weekly
  

• 60 percent female
  
• 25-50 years old, with a mean age of 35
• 65 percent Caucasian
• 25 percent African-American
• 10 percent Hispanic
• diagnoses: chemical/alcohol dependence, personality/mood disorders

4 weeks