Collaborative Care

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

It is in the treatment of the patient with disabling medical illness thatthe internist or the primary care doctor and the psychiatrist find theirmost critical common ground. After 25 years of adult psychiatry officepractice, my relocation to Charleston, S.C., from Washington, D.C., introducedme to the doctors and patients of the Adult Primary Care Clinic.Many of these patients had multiple illnesses, took multiple medications,and often had adjustment issues that went unidentified. In this group,I found major depressions¹ and serious anxiety disorders^2,3 in addition toadjustment problems.⁴