"No health without mental health"

• Physical illness can result in profound social and emotional consequences impacting on mental health.
• More than one-quarter of general hospital patients have a mental disorder.
• Mental ill health impedes recovery from physical illness and may increase mortality rates. For example, the risk of depressed patients with coronary heart disease dying in the 2-years after initial assessment is twice as high as it is for non-depressed patients.
• Mental disorders are often unrecognised in patients with physical illness. Over half of all cases of depression in the general hospital setting go unrecognised. Increased length of stay or unnecessary admissions is associated with poor management of alcohol withdrawal states in the general hospital