Genetics in pediatric consultation-liaison psychiatry and multidisciplinary management of complex conditions

Abstract

Pediatric consultation-liaison psychiatrists play important roles in helping healthcare teams to optimally manage complex conditions. These roles can include: helping pediatric colleagues to consider genetic and other medical etiologies for behavioral symptoms, leading and/or optimizing multidisciplinary teams in managing complex conditions, and helping families to cope with illnesses with significant impacts on well-being. In this chapter, we explore some of these roles and provide an overview of the specialized topic of psychiatric genetics, which is the topic of interest to both contemporary psychiatry and pediatrics yet often not always specifically covered in standard references for consultation-liaison psychiatry.