Consulting with anxious medical patients. Part II: Diagnostic and therapeutic considerations.
In consulting with anxious medical patients, the psychiatrist needs to consider the possibility of organic disease, differentiate anxiety and depression, and ascertain whether comorbid conditions are present. Guidelines for differential diagnosis are presented. With the anxious patient, treatment goals are to establish rapport, help the patient mobilize intellectual defenses, and enhance self-esteem. Many anxious medical patients will benefit from benzodiazepines, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or doxepin. The therapeutic potential of the consultation is increased by the psychiatrist's meeting with the nursing staff and by a humanistic approach to the patient.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Lousiville School of Medicine, Kentucky 40292, USA.
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Schwab
D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015897:Comorbidity; D003863:Depression; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D009740:Nursing Staff; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012649:Self Concept