tant in liaison psychiatry. Anxiety and depression are common among people with physical illnesses, influenced more by the person’s appraisal of his or her circumstances than by factors related to the disease itself such as severity of symptoms or prognosis. There are many different types of psychotherapy but the three main approaches are: • basic supportive techniques and problem solving • rel...

recognition of psychosomatic disorders. Liaison psychiatry demands a different set of specialised skills to those required in general adult psychiatry. The liaison psychiatrist must be adept at assessing relevant physical findings in addition to mental state, at engaging individuals with somatic presentations of psychiatric illness and at managing those with psychiatric and physical comorbidity...