Aims and method To develop a simple, pragmatic typology to characterise the nature of liaison interventions delivered by a liaison service in a National Health Service setting. We carried out a retrospective electronic case-note review of referrals to a ward-based liaison psychiatry service.Results Three hundred and forty-four patients were referred to the service over a 12-month period. Ten different types of liaison interventions were identified, with the most common interventions being diagnosis (112 patients, 32.6%), medication management (57 patients, 16.6%), risk assessment and treatment (56 patients, 16.3% each). Mental Health Act work accounted for the greatest number of contacts per patient (median 7).Clinical implications There are inherent limitations in any single-site observational study, as site-specific results cannot be generalised to other liaison services. The intervention categories we developed, however, are easy to use and will provide a way of comparing and benchmarking the range of interventions delivered by different liaison psychiatry services.

Reduced cognitive performance was found across multiple domains in Pakistani EP patients, which suggests that impaired cognitive performance is homogenous in patients with schizophrenia, regardless of ethnicity.

No abstract

No abstract

Delirium tremens is a serious yet treatable complication of alcohol withdrawal. Timely diagnosis is critical as there are well-established treatment regimens that provide symptomatic relief within hours to days. We report the case of a 34-year-old man with an undisclosed history of alcohol dependency. He presented with paranoid beliefs and was transferred to a psychiatric inpatient unit with suspected schizophrenia. Classic features of delirium tremens such as sympathetic overdrive and visual hallucinations were not salient features of his presentation. Within 24 hours of admission, he sustained major self-inflicted abdominal stab wounds and extracted a metre of small bowel as a result of command hallucinations. The possibility of delirium tremens was raised by the receiving trauma team and he responded rapidly to benzodiazepines. Emergency jejunal reanastomosis was successful. This case highlights the fact that delirium tremens may present atypically and that associated command hallucinations can confer grave risks.