Consultation-liaison psychiatry, also known as psychosomatic medicine, is an exciting subspecialty focused on caring for patients with comorbid psychiatric and general medical conditions. It advances the science, education, and delivery of healthcare for medically ill patients while offering psychiatrists the opportunity to work closely with medical and surgical colleagues. Examples of the patients treated include:
- treatment of delirium tremens in an elderly woman with unsuspected alcohol dependence who just received coronary artery bypass surgery;
- consultation to an outpatient HIV/AIDS clinic to help manage psychotropic medications for a patient about to begin a new antiretroviral regimen;
- inpatient consultation to the Oncology Service for a depressed middle-aged man with newly diagnosed, widespread pancreatic cancer.
Consultation-liaison psychiatrists often practice in primary care and outpatient specialty clinics—such as diabetes or women’s health—and play key roles in developing population-based collaborative care models for the more than 10 million patients with chronic medical illness. This field allows clinicians to make a meaningful difference in the emotional well-being of patients with complex medical or surgical conditions.
Explore a Career in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry:
Consultation-liaison psychiatry sub-specialty training is a one-year fellowship recognized by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Fellowship training in consultation-liaison psychiatry is ideal for trainees who enjoy both the art of psychiatry and the rigor of general medicine. ABPN provides information on certification requirements including training, content, costs, and exam dates.
Understanding the Breadth and Depth of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
This Psych News series uses a case-based approach to review the wide range of roles consultation-liaison psychiatrists have throughout health care. Click the links below to learn how a consultation-liaison psychiatrist works and interacts with the various medical specialties and health systems to help patients.
- Gun Violence (29 May 2024)
- Delirium (29 April 2025)
- Subacute and Chronic Long COVID (1 May 2025)
- The C-L Psychiatrist’s Role in Clinical Education (25 June 2024)
- God in the Hospital: The Interface of Spirituality and Psychiatry at End of Life (23 July 2024)
- Pain and the Hospitalized Patient (13 October 2023)
- The Consultant Psychiatrist and the Transgender Patient (21 April 2023)
- The Role of C-L Psychiatry in Culturally Humble Approach to Informed Consent, Medical Decision-Making (20 July 2023)
- Social Justice in Medical-Surgical Settings (20 May 2022)
- Implicit Racial Bias (25 Apr 2022)
- Excited Delirium and Ketamine (23 Dec 2021)
- Lessons Learned from HIV and COVID-19 Pandemics (29 Nov 2021)
- Collaborative Care For Racial/Ethnic Minority Patients (25 Oct 2021)
- Long COVID and Team-Based Care (17 Sep 2021)
- SUD in Medical Populations (25 Feb 2021)
- Eating Disorders (1 Dec 2020)
- Assessing Suicide (2 Sep 2020)
- C-L Psychiatry Before, After Bariatric Surgery (15 Jul 2020)
- Assessing and Managing Delirium (19 Mar 2020)
- Complex Psychopharmacology in Medically Ill Patients (5 Mar 2020)
- Decisional Capacity Assessment (4 Feb 2020)
- Pediatric Psychiatry (18 Jul 2019)
- Integrated Care (5 Apr 2019)
- Traumatic Brain Injury and Neuropsychiatry (28 Feb 2019)
- Psycho-Oncology (1 Feb 2019)
- Perinatal Psychiatry (18 Jan 2019)
- Cardiac Psychiatry (4 Dec 2018)
- HIV/AIDS Psychiatry (21 Sep 2018)
- Transplant Psychiatry (10 Aug 2018)
- From Psychosomatic Medicine to Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (27 Apr 2018)
Try a Rotation in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
Medical students who do a rotation in consultation-liaison psychiatry can learn about different psychiatric manifestations of medical illness and their treatments and about care for medically ill patients who have psychiatric disorders.
For information about how to do a rotation in consultation-liaison psychiatry, contact the education coordinator in your psychiatry department.
Consultation-Liaison Resources for Psychiatry Residents
- The Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP) has collected resources for psychiatry residents interested in consultation-liaison psychiatry, including fellowship opportunities, educational resources and awards. View their resources here.
- [NEW] APA and The Academy for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry recently hosted a webinar, "Applying to C-L Psychiatry Fellowships in 2022: A Virtual Q&A". View the webinar here.
- The Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) are pleased to present our fourth annual webinar on Finding Your First (Or Next) C-L Job. View the recording below.
APA's Council on Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
The Council on Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry focuses on policies and resources for the psychiatric care of persons who are medically ill and thus stands at the interface of psychiatry with other medical specialties.