Nutritional interventions have been employed by multi-disciplinary teams in non-psychiatric departments as billable medical care (i. e., "Nutrition Support Team" or NST). In psychiatric practice, however, although nutrition-related problems are common, such as obesity, thinness, constipation and difficulty swallowing, nutritional interventions by nutritionists are not commonly applied. This is because there are not as many nutritionists assigned to psychiatric care, out-patient guidance but not inclusive care units or nutritional guidance during hospitalization is billable, and NST does not fulfill the requirements for billing. Moreover, unavoidable treatment of psychiatric symptoms is prioritized over nutritional management.
 This report summarizes the specialties of nutritionists and their roles in psychiatric practice. In addition, in the process of examining nutritional services from the perspective of other professionals, problems that nutritionists have to face have newly emerged.
 I hope that as other professionals understand the aspects of care that nutritionists can provide, nutritionists can expand the scope of their services and the roles they play in clinical psychiatric care teams, thereby improving the quality of life for the patients.
 On a final note, I thank this project for including the services of nutritionists for the special series featuring psychiatric teams.
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