The organization dedicated for decades to “Psychosomatic Medicine” will be rebranded as Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. The name change, aimed in part at shedding the ambiguity around the word “psychosomatic” and better capturing the mission of consultation-liaison psychiatry, will be reflected across the group’s platforms. The tagline on the group’s journal, Psychosomatics, will become “The Journal of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry,” and the theme of the group’s November 2018 annual meeting in Orlando will focus on the rebranding.The academy also has changed its web address to clpsychiatry.org.

Consultation-liaison psychiatrists work collaboratively with four groups of “complex medically ill” patients. They treat patients with comorbid psychiatric and general medical illness, those with psychiatric illness directly tied to a primary medical condition, such as dementia or delirium, those with “complex illness behavior such as ‘somatoform’ disorders”, and those admitted to medical-surgical units after incidents such as attempted suicide. Consultation-liaison psychiatrists, who typically work in teaching hospitals, tend to provide services that are reactive – emergent or urgent.