Study of Attitudes and Practice of Physicians Regarding Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry in Teaching Hospitals of Mazandaran, Iran

OBJECTIVE Consultation-liaison (CL) psychiatry interfaces between psychiatry and other medical disciplines to promote integrated care of patients. The purpose of this study is evaluation of attitudes and practice of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences physicians of teaching hospitals regarding CL psychiatry. METHODS In this descriptive study, all of the general practitioners, specialist and subspecialist physicians and assistants working in teaching hospitals of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences were requested to fill in a questionnaire which was designed based on previous studies and observations to assess their attitudes and practice. Data were analysed by SPSS-16 software, using chi square. RESULTS One hundred and forty nine (62.6%) physicians had very positive attitudes and 89 cases (37.4%) had positive attitudes; 234 physicians (98.3%) had acceptable practice, and 4 cases (1.7%) had unacceptable practice. There were no significant differences between physicians with positive and very positive attitudes and between physicians with acceptable and unacceptable practice regarding gender, age, education, specialty and place of work (hospital). The most common reasons of physicians for not requesting psychiatric consultation were lack of time, forgetfulness, lack of access to psychiatrist, and lack of belief in the need for psychiatric consultation respectively. CONCLUSION The findings of this study indicate the successful psychiatric educations and psychiatrists practice in formation of positive attitudes and acceptable practice regarding CL Psychiatry in these university hospitals. No significant differences between different specialties and work place hospitals indicate that they are similarly affected.