BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION BROUGHT RAPID IMPROVEMENT TO A SEVERE ASTHMATIC PATIENT WHO EXPERIENCED LONG-TERM HOSPITALIZATION

Abstract

A comprehensive management from a psychosomatic point of view was carried out for a 12-year-old severe asthmatic patient who had experienced long-term hospitalization. Our conventional therapy could not bring him improvement for the first couple of months, although psychological care was given during this time by a psychologist. Then we rebuilt our strategy and introduced primary intervention of behavioral medicine with a initiative taken by physicians. As a result, we could establish a better patient (parents) -physician relationship and reinforced the comprehensive management. This intervention got a remarkable success in decreasing both the patient's anxiety and frequency of asthma attack, and eventually he was released from his long-term hospitalization.We realized that psychosomatic therapy functions quite effectively when physicians themselves take part in the psychosomatic care, compared with when physicians put focus only on physical aspects of a patient by letting psychologists alone take care of his psychological aspect. Improvement of parents-patient relationship and parental cooperation with the therapeutic team seems to contribute to stabilizing his symptom after discharge. Formal cooperative system among physicians, comedical staffs and patients (parents) was not enough to realize effective comprehensive management. We should keep on our mind that it is necessary for the triad to establish close cooperation with one another as joint therapists of psychosomatic medicine.