Psychosomatic Rehabilitation: An Overview

Abstract

Psychosomatic Rehabilitation: An Overview Abstract. Psychosomatic Medicine is based on the shared understanding that physical illnesses can have a multi-factorial aetiology, whereby biological, psychological and social factors interact to cause and maintain physical and mental symptoms and complaints. Commonly implicated aetiological factors in psychosomatic disorders are physical and / or psychological stress, inflammation and degeneration, and the resulting symptoms can manifest themselves in different organ systems, such as: the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, the cardiovascular system, the respiratory system, the gastrointestinal system and the skin. In order to create a model of psychosomatic symptoms that would allow for a systematic classification of psychosomatic disorders, the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) were developed in 1995. Given that biological, psychological and social factors can interact to cause and maintain physical and mental symptoms and complaints, psychosomatic therapies and rehabilitation are usually provided in multidisciplinary settings, where professionals from different disciplines (physicians, psychologists, osteopaths, physiotherapists and occupational therapists) work as a team. If no interdisciplinary treatment and process organisation close to the patient's home is available for an outpatient setting, psychosomatic rehabilitation is usually carried out in an inpatient setting. The rehabilitation process is organised in several steps: Assessment (1); Conceptualisation (2); Goal planning (3); Interdisciplinary rehabilitation (4); Re-assessment (5); Discharge planning. The clinical effectiveness of inpatient psychosomatic rehabilitation has been documented in several Austrian and German studies. Following discharge, the patient is usually offered a continuation of the rehabilitation as an outpatient.