OBJECTIVE: To review key issues in the preoperative assessment of patients with psychiatric disorders: assessment of cognitive capacity, psychiatric history, capacity to give informed consent, and the impact of psychotropic medications or substances of abuse. We also outline a general approach to the psychiatric patient. Our review focuses on those psychiatric conditions and medications most likely to complicate perioperative care. DATA SOURCE: Critical studies and expert reviews in the field, as well as the authors' clinical experience in general hospital psychiatry. CONCLUSIONS: Psychiatric disorders need not unduly complicate perioperative care, but they present certain challenges; a systematic approach as described here will simplify perioperative care of these patients.
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Desan et al. (2004) studied this question.
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