A high incidence of psychiatric disorders is found in patients attending neurologists. Among new outpatients, the prevalence of all disorders has been estimated at >50%.¹ Mood and anxiety disorders are present in 40% of patients, are associated with greater disability and are persistent.² Functional neurological symptoms or somatoform disorders may be present to some degree in up to one third of patients and these are the patients neurologists find more difficult to help.³ In the paper by Jeffries et al⁴(see p 414), similarly high rates of psychiatric disorder are shown to occur among inpatients, …