title: A substance abuse consultation service. Enhancing the care of hospitalized substance abusers and providing training in addiction psychiatry.
abstract: The authors review the literature on the high prevalence but underrecognition of substance abuse among hospitalized patients and the general unavailability of hospital-based substance abuse consultation services. They describe the development, clinical operations, staffing, and teaching activities of a large substance abuse consultation service in one urban academic medical center and detail the service's growth and changing utilization patterns over an 8-year period, reporting the clinical characteristics of 1,819 patients seen over a 1-year period. Differences in patient demographics, patterns of substance use, and diagnoses were highly significant from one referring service to another. The authors discuss the implications of such a service for patient care and teaching.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore 21201, USA.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: McDuff
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Solounias
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beuger
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Klecz
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weintraub
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D015995:Prevalence; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy