Evidence-based treatments in liaison psychiatry

It is becoming increasingly important in all areas of medicine to be aware of the evidence supporting the treatments we offer. In this article we focus on evidence-based treatments in the area of liaison psychiatry. We look at where the evidence comes from for treatments in liaison psychiatry and explain the relative importance of different sorts of evidence. We review some of the key systematic review evidence in this area and discuss the difficulty of extrapolating evidence from other areas of psychiatry. Using a worked example we demonstrate how to apply evidence to a clinical scenario. The final part of the article focuses on the most challenging part of evidence-based medicine – integrating knowledge into services. Recommendations are made for three stages necessary to facilitate this process. Some existing methods aimed at improving evidence-based practice such as e-mail discussion groups, learning collaboratives and clinical networks are discussed briefly.