Editorial commentary
Who should treat psychiatric disorders in neurology patients?
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Few neurologists doubt that a significant proportion of the patients who consult them have a psychiatric disorder of at least moderate severity. It is well established that conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and cerebrovascular disease are associated with an increased vulnerability to anxiety disorders, affective disorders, and psychoses.1 The predisposition probably results both from the functional disability associated with the neurological condition and also from disturbance of intracerebral neurotransmitter pathways. In addition to those with established organic disease neurologists are consulted by a considerable number of somatising patients, those with little or no organic pathology but who have various neurological symptoms masking an underlying psychiatric disorder.2
The paper by Carson et al3 on
pages 202-206 of this volume indicates the extent of this phenomenon
in general neurological outpatient practice and confirms previous
studies in this area. Only a minority of all patients with an emotional
disorder were
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- Neurological disease, emotional disorder, and disability: they are related: a study of 300 consecutive new referrals to a neurology outpatient department
- Alan J Carson, Brigitte Ringbauer, Lesley MacKenzie, Charles Warlow, Michael Sharpe
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2000 68: 202-206.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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