The American journal of psychiatry
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
A randomized controlled study of psychiatric consultation guided by screening in general medical inpatients.
The purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that psychiatric consultation would reduce health care utilization during and after medical hospitalization. ⋯ The brief, efficient screen for anxiety, depression, confusion, and pain identified a group of patients who also used more hospital resources, but a single experimental psychiatric consultation did not reduce costs. The double-controlled nature of the design proved essential to avoid being misled by background changes in hospital resource use.