General Hospital Psychiatry explores the many linkages among psychiatry, medicine, and primary care. In emphasizing a biopsychosocial approach to illness and health, the journal provides a forum for professionals with clinical, academic, and research interests in psychiatry's role in the mainstream of medicine. The journal expands on traditional models of consultation-liaison, inpatient and outpatient services in the general hospital to address all aspects of ambulatory, inpatient, emergency, and community care. In response to the unpredictable nature of contemporary life, the journal explores the role of emergency psychiatry in addressing personal, social, political, and forensic responses to stress and trauma. Studies of multisystem relationships between stress, illness, psychosocial factors, inter- and intra-personal relationships, family dynamics, ecological change, and institutional forces are especially relevant to the journal's objectives.

General Hospital Psychiatry will publish original articles, case reports and brief communications on: biopsychosocial approaches to medicine; liaison-consultation psychiatry; psychosomatic medicine; emergency and crisis psychiatry; the relationship of psychiatric services to general medical systems; and new directions in medical education that stress psychiatry's role in primary care, family practice, and continuing education.