Psychiatry for the Internist

This issue of Medical Clinics brings the practicing internist up to date on the latest approaches in psychiatry. Topics include collaborative care and consultation, including interviewing, cultural competence, and enhancing rapport and adherence; assessments of the risk of suicide or violence in a patient in crisis; cognitive impairment such as delirium and dementia; dysregulated mood such as major depression and bipolar disorder; anxiety disorders such as panic attacks, generalized anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and obsessions or compulsions; psychopharmacologic care, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, mood-stabilizing anticonvulsants, and natural remedies; non-pharmacological care of patients with co-morbid medical and psychiatric conditions, including different types of psychotherapy of the medically ill; substance use and abuse; treating the patient with multiple physical symptoms or chronic disease including somatoform disorders, AIDS, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension; symptoms at the interface of medicine and psychiatry such as pain, sleep disturbance, gastrointestinal distress, sexual dysfunction, premenstrual dysphoria, and grief; informed consent, handling capacity decisions, civil commitment, boundary issues, and malpractice claims; and an approach to the patient with organ failure, transplantation and end-of-life treatment decisions.