Consultation-liaison psychiatry: contributions to medical practice.

Consultation-liaison psychiatry has recently been recommended for subspecialty status by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology with a name change to "psychosomatic medicine." Final approval by the American Board of Specialties is expected. Therefore, this is a propitious time to review what the author considers the significant contributions of consultation-liaison psychiatry to the practice of medicine, the education of its practitioners, and future opportunities and challenges. The articles mentioned have been published primarily in medical and surgical journals in which their authors believed they would have the greatest impact. Therefore, this is a body of work that is probably unknown to most psychiatrists outside of this field.