Abstract
Psychosomatic medicine deals with the interaction between physical, emotional, and social aspects of an illness. Psychosocial aspects in the onset and in the course of an illness are positive and negative bonding experiences, acute and chronic psychosocial stress, learning experiences and cognitions, as well as protective factors such as emotional resilience, resource activation (salutogenesis) and sense of coherence. These aspects also influence patients' coping behaviors. The theoretical basis of psychosomatic medicine is the biopsychosocial model. This model describes the interactions among the biological, psychological, and social processes that are involved, to various extents, in each disease. The objectives of the psychosomatic approach are to build bridges between the various clinical disciplines to overcome the mind-body dichotomy and to stress the importance of understanding the interactions among biology, psychology, and social factors in every patient, independent of the primary pathology that is being treated.
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Fritzsche, K., Goli, F., Dobos, C.M. (2020). What Is Psychosomatic Medicine?. In: Fritzsche, K., McDaniel, S., Wirsching, M. (eds) Psychosomatic Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27080-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27080-3_1
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