Child consultation-liaison psychiatry within the hospital: a prospective study

The activity of child consultation-liaison psychiatry within the hospital can be defined as: the clinical, therapeutic and preventive care given by the staff members of the children psychiatric department, and their studies on pedagogy and research, in the other departments of the children hospital. Material and methods. - Our study focused on the consultation-liaison interventions (N = 215) carried out in the Children Hospital of Tours (France) for I year (November 1999-October 2000): it dealt with their characteristics and those of the examined population. It aimed at describing qualitatively and quantitatively this activity and its evolution, by means of a prospective collection of information, and a comparison of some of them with researches carried on previously in the same setting. Results. - Child consultation-liaison psychiatry plays a major part in pediatric hospital today. This activity increased by 33% since 1994. The nature of needs for pediatrics care has evolved, and crisis situations are now most dominant. Child psychiatry diagnoses are very varied: the most frequent ones concern adaptation troubles. The agreement on the suggested medical follow-up amounts to more than 50%. (C) 2003 Publie par Elsevier SAS.