ABPN C-L Psychiatry

Yes. Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry is the current ABPN subspecialty name; psychosomatic medicine is the former name. The clinical focus remains psychiatric care of medically ill patients, including hospital consultation, diagnostic complexity, and coordination with medical and surgical teams. Use the current name when searching ABPN scheduling, registration, and continuing-certification information.

The exam samples the full C-L subspecialty: assessment and differential diagnosis in the medically ill, consult-liaison practice and team communication, psychiatric-medical comorbidity and psychopharmacology, emergency and critical care psychiatry, substance use and pain, palliative and end-of-life care, and special populations. Treat the ABPN blueprint as the authority; do not study only delirium or only psychopharmacology.

The ABPN source page provided here does not state the C-L Psychiatry exam item count, time limit, or detailed format. Do not rely on memory or older forums. Check ABPN's exam schedule and initial-certification FAQs for current logistics. If a detail is absent, confirm it with ABPN before making travel or study-timing decisions.

The source does not publish a passing score for this exam. ABPN sets and reports scoring separately, and the threshold may differ by exam administration. Do not use an arbitrary percentage from a commercial question bank as a target. Use practice tests to find weak domains, then confirm official scoring and result reporting through ABPN.

The source does not describe retake eligibility, waiting periods, or fees for the C-L Psychiatry exam. Policies can differ between initial certification and continuing certification. Check ABPN's initial-certification and continuing-certification FAQs and fee schedule for current rules. Do not assume a fixed waiting period or unlimited attempts.

ABPN lists 11/23 at 11:59 pm CT as the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Continuing Certification deadline tied to March 2027 exam dates. That is a continuing-certification deadline, not proof of an initial-certification test date. Confirm the actual exam date, application window, and whether your pathway is initial or continuing certification on ABPN's site.

Start with the domains you handle least often-often palliative care, transplant or critical care, or reproductive psychiatry-then integrate medical differentials into every psychiatric topic. Use case-based questions to practice capacity, delirium, catatonia, and medication safety in organ disease. Finish with timed mixed practice and concise consult-note writing. Review errors by domain, not by question number.

Common weaknesses are anchoring on a psychiatric diagnosis before excluding delirium or medical causes, ignoring renal, hepatic, or cardiac effects on drug choice, and writing vague recommendations that the primary team cannot act on. Others include weak capacity reasoning, poorly framed suicide-risk communication, and neglecting withdrawal or pain. Practice succinct, prioritized answers and document medical reasoning.

Starting in 2025, ABPN requires 20 article exams every three years for each certification in the Article-Based Continuing Certification pathway. This is a continuing-certification requirement, not a blueprint element for the C-L exam. Track article exams separately from clinical study and confirm pathway details in ABPN's ABCC FAQs.

If a scheduling, fee, or scoring detail is not on the source page, treat it as unknown rather than filling it from memory. Use ABPN's official exam schedule, fee schedule, and FAQs, and verify through the physician portal. This independent page does not replace ABPN notices.