[The consultant ("liaison") psychiatrist and psychologist: his position and tasks in non-psychiatric health care facilities].

The author summarizes findings assembled during his 25 years of experience as a consulting psychiatrist in medical and surgical departments. He defines the basic groups of actual problems the solution of which is most frequently needed: states of confusion, depression, crises, psychosomatic problems in the narrower sense of the word, conflicts between patients and staff, psychoprophylactic work and research. He emphasizes the demand of an integrated biopsychosocial approach.