The role of consultation-liaison psychiatrists in improving health care of patients with schizophrenia.

One key challenge for care of the next generation of patients with schizophrenia is reducing and preventing medical morbidity. To improve their healthcare, we suggest that consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrists should be leaders in an effort to close the gap between psychiatric and medical care for patients with schizophrenia. We contend that C-L psychiatrists are well equipped to help manage the care of these patients because of their expertise in caring for complex patients, working in teams, and collaborating with medical and surgical colleagues. We provide specific examples (antipsychotic-induced metabolic monitoring; smoking cessation; infectious disease screening) of how C-L psychiatrists can rise to the challenge now and moving forward.