Audit report of an inpatient liaison psychiatry service within Baghdad teaching hospital

Abstract EN

Introduction: Liaison psychiatry is a sub-specialty of medicine concerned with the management of mental disorder in general medical settings.

It deals with conditions where the problem is the co-existence of physical and psychological symptoms regardless of causation.

Aims: The current audit involved screening all patients referred over a three month period to the Liaison Psychiatry Consultation Service, Baghdad Teaching Hospital.

Cases were from all departments of Baghdad Medical City.

The purpose was to establish an initial audit cycle for referral pathways, patient demographics, and clinical presentation in order to develop the service.

Methods: Patients (N=72) were referred to the service between March and June 2016 (N=72).

In the current audit, no specific standards were set.

A questionnaire was used to record patient information.

Results: Take up of the service was 9.37%.

This was on the basis of there being 2305 hospital beds in use during the audit period.

All departments within Baghdad Medical City made at least one referral with the majority being from the Department of Medicine (29.1%) and the Emergency Department (23.6%).

The most common presentations were delirium (31.9%) and depression (19.4%).

The majority of patients were aged 18-29 years (23.6%) followed by those over 60 years (19.4%).

Conclusions: Qualitative feedback from resident doctors was that a majority of patients with physical complaints benefitted from having psychiatric input for what appeared to be co-morbid mental health conditions.

Future audits should be conducted to examine the initial reason for hospital admission against mental health presentation and patient feedback should be sought