Alcoholism and the consultation-liaison psychiatrist.

This article hopes to remind the practitioner that alcohol abuse and dependence is the most common of psychiatric disorders, impacts on the general hospital at a variety of levels, repels our referrant-colleagues, and is difficult to diagnose but is eminently treatable. Because both clinicians and their patients are subject to alcohol abuse and dependence, the consultation-liaison psychiatrist is in an ideal position to impact therapeutically on alcoholism at all levels of presentation. Alcoholism is a natural object of a consultation-liaison psychiatrist's time, interest, and energy.