When one gets sick and seeks for treatment, two aspects of care needs to be dealt with. "Disease" refers to biological aspects which includes the etiology, symptomatology, diagnosis and treatment; and "illness" refers to psychosocial aspects which includes the attitude of the patient toward the "disease", and help-seeking behavior, level of suffering, patient-physician relationship and therapeutic compliance etc. The "Evidence-based Medicine" tends to emphasize teaching of "Knowledge" about "disease", and neglect the "illness" aspects of care. The successful strategies of care emphasizes the comprehense approach which integrates the "knowledge" about "disease" and "Illness" with the "state-of-the-art" skills and "wisdom" into the total holistic care systems toward the release of "suffering" and solving of the "problems" which arises from the "disease" and "illness". The consultation psychiatrist is expected to provide the knowledge, skills and wisdom to deal with the legal and ethical issues that the clinicians often encounter in their busy daily practice.
