From consultation-liaison psychiatry to integrated care for multiple and complex needs

The aim of the present study was to review the ways in which contemporary medicine addresses physical/psychiatric multimorbidity, to review the underlying concepts and methodologies used, and to propose a novel approach that may help consultation-liaison psychiatry (CLP) position itself better in the health-care field. A Medline search of the terms 'consultation-liaison psychiatry', 'integrated care', 'quality assurance' and 'qualitative methodology', was complemented by study of the literature on complexity theory and by discussions with colleagues in both the health science and sociology fields. There is a growing realization that presentation with multimorbidity of both physical and psychiatric disorders is the norm. Other health-care disciplines have responded quickly to meeting the multiple and complex needs of such patients, attracting funding to an extent that CLP has been unable to achieve. Uncritical application, however, of integrated care technology based on evidence from randomized controlled trials has produced disappointing results. There is a growing realization that such quantitative methods need to be complemented by in-depth exploration using non-traditional methods including qualitative ones, and drawing on complexity theory. The Cochrane Collaboration is exploring this. As CLP and other medical and health-care disciplines face the challenge of patients with multimorbidity, they need to find acceptable answers to the question of what works for whom in what context for patients with multiple and complex needs. CLP can contribute its rich experience in the qualitative approaches that will be needed in research addressing this question, but needs help from other disciplines to refine its techniques so that its contributions are considered valid. The context for implementing effective interventions derived from such studies will in future be that of transdisciplinary teams whose mode of working is empirically based and transparent. CLP is well placed by dint of its psychodynamic and systems theory roots to provide leadership in this transformation in health-care delivery.