The publication aims to discuss and present the subject of consultation psychiatry. It presents the definition, objectives and tasks, educational activities and history of the concept of consultation psychiatry from antiquity to modern times, with emphasis on the development of this domain in Poland. Literature also presents issues related to consultation psychiatry in different countries, paying special attention to the principles of training and education. The publication presents also the challenges to which consultation psychiatry is exposed. This domain is associated with the progress of medicine, including such specialties as transplantation, oncology, infectious diseases and biomedicine. With advances in medical there will be more psychological and emotional challenges that will create an area for consultation psychiatry. Furthermore, the article discusses the impact of consultation psychiatry on other fields of medicine: notified and performed psychiatric consultations considerably reduce the length of hospitalisation (there is a direct relationship between the time of notification of consultation and the length of hospitalization), they help to reduce the healthcare costs and provide a better access to mental health care, increase the detection of mental diseases, some of which may be life-threatening, and affect the patients’ quality of life. The conclusions present five major tasks for consultation psychiatry: diagnostic assessment, identification of barriers to recovery, identification of relapse, brief psychotherapy focused on the problem and pharmacological treatment.