What is a Psychiatric Consultation?
A psychiatric consultation is a comprehensive evaluation of the psychological, biological, medical and social causes of emotional distress. Together you and Dr. Forster, and other clinicians at Gateway Psychiatric Services Mood Disorders Clinic, will review your current stresses and problems and any past medical or psychiatric conditions. This information, as well as any necessary medical records and laboratory tests, will lead to the formulation of a comprehensive treatment plan. A psychiatric consultation can help you understand the sources of problems from three points of view: biological (i.e. heredity, hormones, nutrition, physical illness), psychological (i.e. current life stressors, childhood experiences), and social (i.e. cultural differences, family relationships, prejudice). It is this capacity to evaluate the causes of emotional distress from each of these perspectives that makes psychiatry unique. Many people find that a psychiatric consultation gives them a new perspective
Related Questions
- When should referral to a geriatric psychiatric unit or consultation with a psychiatrist who has expertise in the care of older adults be considered?
- Are the patients with post-transplant psychiatric consultation different from other medical-surgical consultation inpatients?
- do the epidemiologic data support psychiatric consultation?
