The Role of Psychosomatic Medicine in Global Health Care

Abstract

This article reviews the principles and skills involved with psychosomatic medicine and their potential ability to improve global health care. New awareness of the escalating global public health impact of noncommunicable diseases, including chronic medical conditions and mental disorders, has stimulated interest in determining how best to organize health services. Home to the biopsychosocial model, the field of psychosomatic medicine is well-suited to inform such efforts by virtue of its emphasis on cross-disciplinary collaboration and specialized knowledge at the interface of medicine and psychiatry that takes into account individual and contextual influences on health. Consistent with the principles of psychosomatic medicine, promising strategies to improve global health care include integrating mental health care into primary care, applying the chronic care model in programs aimed at enhancing disease self-management, and using innovative models such as Internet-based therapy and telemedicine to increase access to quality care.

The Munich Diagnostic and Predictor Study of Dizziness: objectives, design, and methods

“…Global public health problems have generated the need for clinical investigations that include patients' functioning in their daily and working lives, their social roles, and their emotional stability and well-being. Thus, international efforts are underway to implement psychosomatic medicine and its comprehensive interdisciplinary framework and perspective for health care systems [2,29,30].…”

Schmerztherapeutische Inhalte internationaler Curricula für die studentische Lehre in der Palliativmedizin

“…Noch immer sind in Deutschland Patienten nach Operationen schmerztherapeutisch in erheblichem Maße unterversorgt [14]. Gesellschaftliche Veränderungen bedingen eine Zunahme psychosomatischer Erkrankungen wie der chronischen Schmerzsyndrome, ohne dass dem eine flächendecken-de, verlässliche und ausreichende Versorgungsstruktur gegenübersteht [2,23]. Eine ausreichende schmerztherapeutische Versorgung ist aber nicht nur für den einzelnen Betroffenen von großer Wichtigkeit, sondern auch für die Gesellschaft.…”

“…Tab 2. Detaillierte Analyse der PEAT-Domäne II (Schmerz) Themen als Analysegrundlage gewählt, so findet der Bereich Schmerz auch international in Curricula für das Fach Palliativmedizin in einem Umfang von ungefähr 13% Berücksichtigung, d. h. 87% der Curricula werden von anderen Themen bestimmt.In der Analyse wurde offensichtlich, dass die PEAT-Domäne II (Schmerz) alle für die studentische Lehre im Fach Palliativmedizin wichtigen Themen -bis auf das Thema des Durchbruchschmerzesumfasst.…”

Reliability and Validity of the Urdu Version of Psychosomatic Symptoms Scale in Pakistani Patients

“…This paradigm entails the idea that physical and psychological conditions are not separated in psychosomatic assessments. Moreover, individuals with psychosomatic diseases are focused on their somatic symptoms generally ignoring their psychological difficulties ( Engel, 1977 ; Bauer et al, 2011 ; Bolton and Gillett, 2019 ). Clinicians only rely on the easily administered tool Psychosomatic Symptoms Scale (PSSS) to assess and diagnose the psychosomatic symptoms which was developed by Li et al (2020) .…”