The high prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the general hospital leads to research into the significance of detection and treatment of these disorders. We performed a study with medical/surgical patients staying long in hospital, as we expected a relatively high psychiatric morbidity in this population. Prevalence was determined by a two-stage procedure, using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) followed by a psychiatric diagnostic interview. Subsequently, a group of patients selected on GHQ-score participated in a randomized controlled intervention study. Herein we tried to approximate closely the natural setting of psychiatric consultation. Effectiveness of consultation was examined for a number of parameters of mental functioning and medical consumption.

The assessed prevalence of psychiatric disorders (24%) is similar to values for patients not selected on length of hospital stay. Most disorders appeared to be mild. No effects of psychiatric consultation could be shown for the research parameters. Methodological shortcomings relevant to this outcome are discussed.