A Child psychiatry consultation service to paediatricians

Much has been written on the general theme of psychiatric consultation services to medical colleagues, and a comprehensive review of the literature has been provided by Lipowski (1967). Most of the consultation services reported in the literature describe a prepounderance of referrals from medical rather than surgical wards, but either do not comment on paediatric referrals or specifically exclude them from consideration. Nevertheless, there have been frequent calls for a close relationship between child psychiatry and paediatric practice (e.g. Winnicott 1963, Pinkerton 1973), and the importance of a developmental approach in both paediatrics and child psychiatry has been particularly stressed by such eminent child psychiatrists as Eisenberg (1967) and Solnit and Senn (1954).