Psychosomatic Medicine - Objectives, Functions, and Uses

What Is Psychosomatic Medicine?

Psychosomatic medicine or drugs is a branch of medicine that deals with mental health illnesses; it is also known as consultation-liaison psychiatry. This branch provides information and practice that helps physicians differentiate between physical and psychological conditions. In addition, this branch deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and research of various mental health conditions.

This in-depth study and knowledge help to bridge the gap between the physician and psychiatrist and benefit the patient by providing appropriate treatment at the right time. Psychiatry and psychiatric disorders have been studied for ages, but psychosomatic medicine was introduced and gained popularity in 2003.

What Are the Objectives of Psychosomatic Medicines?

Psychosomatic medicine aims to provide complete patient care, including supporting an individual with his emotional, cognitive, and behavioral needs. Therefore, they function as consultants and primary care physicians to fulfill this requirement. Following are some of the objectives of psychosomatic medicine:

• Knowledge of Medicine: The physicians or the crew working with psychosomatic medicine are expected to have complete and accurate knowledge about psychosomatic disorders and their relations with the other underlying health problems. Practitioners are always expected to be aware and alert, considering the patients' symptomatic behaviors and life-threatening actions. Physicians dealing with such patients must be capable of handling emergencies and must know all the other treatment options available.

• Patient Care: Specialists who deal with psychosomatic medicine focus on improving their patients' quality of life. They achieve this through appropriate consultation in a warm, soothing atmosphere by carrying out evidence-based guidance and counseling that promotes an individual's physical and mental well-being.

• Evaluation of Mental Factors: The physician extracts the complete history and analyzes the factors responsible for a particular mental health condition. This helps in the accurate diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders.

• Individual Treatment Plan: In the case of psychiatric disorders, though being the same condition, a patient may present with different symptoms with varying severity; thus, one treatment modality does not work for all; hence, the specialist must be capable of tailoring the treatment plan, which is effective in treating the patient and preventing any further complications, the treatment must aim at physical and mental wellbeing of an individual.

• Collaborative Care: The consultant promotes the treatment in a multidisciplinary approach where the patient's family and friends are also involved and educated as they play an essential role in being an integral part of the patient's life. This promotes healthy treating the disorder by treating it along with its root cause.

• Training: Consultants conduct camps and seminars to provide training and education to junior consultants and nonpsychiatric health care providers; this helps the providers diagnose and refer patients to the potential risk category and provide primary care in case of emergency. Primary health care physicians are also important in places where secondary care is inaccessible.

What Are the Functions of Psychosomatic Medicine?

Psychosomatic medicine mainly aims at clinical, educational, and research functions:

• Clinical Function: Psychiatry is mainly based on consultation and referral based on its clinical function.

• Consultation Psychiatrists: These specialists are mainly seen in outpatient and emergency departments, advising the other physicians who are the primary point of contact with the patients.

• Referral Psychiatrist: This specialist comes into the picture when the physician refers a patient to the higher center; they help the physician by providing comprehensive psychiatric care. This specialist mainly treats patients who are hospitalized.

• Research Function: This field, being a complex branch of medicine, provides a wide scope of research. The studies are mainly based on medicines and mental health disorders that help regulate newer treatment modalities. These studies have also flourished in new subspecialties like psycho-oncology, psycho-immunology, and psycho-obstetrics.

• Administrative Function: This function is looked upon or is handled by government departments or the higher organizations that look after the appropriate functioning of the organization, of which all the practicing psychiatrists are members. These organizations prevent any violence or medicolegal activities that can cause harm to the doctor or the patient. They mainly function by formulating laws and following the governed rules and regulations.

Some Other Functions of Psychosomatic Medicine Include:

• Managing the patients with suicidal tendencies and their severe behavioral changes.

• Consultation service to the patient with mental health illness who is undergoing surgery.

• Conducting sessions and counseling patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), cancer, or other disorders.

• These consultants also collaborate with the primary physician and work on early diagnosis and prevention of mental health disorders.

What Are the Disorders Treated by Psychosomatic Medicine?

Psychosomatic medicine mainly aims at treating mental health conditions irrespective of the underlying cause; some of the commonly examined conditions include:

• Stress.

• Anxiety disorder.

• Insomnia (lack of enough sleep).

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (repetitive behavior due to excessive thoughts).

• Schizophrenia (a disorder affecting a person’s behavior, feelings, and ability to think clearly).

• Binge eating disorders.

• Mood disorders.

• Impulse control disorders.

• Panic disorders.

• Patients in grief.

• Alzheimer's disease (a mental illness affecting memory and mental functions).

Recently, government organizations have noted the surge in the number of cases presenting with mental health issues compared to the number of available consultants, which is insufficient; thus, to overcome this shortfall, organizations have added extra seats and fellowship programs at the concerned universities.

Conclusion:

Psychosomatic medicine deals with mental health disorders and improves the diagnosis and prognosis of the disorder by providing timely treatment and education to the patient and their families. It is not any separate specialty but rather applies to all medical specialties. This branch of medicine was developed in 2003 and has gained popularity since then. The consultants who are members of this community work closely with the primary healthcare physicians and provide training and seminars to educate them to work in emergencies when specialists are unavailable.