Vol 5 n° 2 - Psychiatric disorders in somatic medicine
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ear Colleagues, The relationship between the mind and the body has long been widely recognized in medicine. The notion of the primary cause of a condition is essential for defining the appropriate therapeutic approach. However, one symptom domain—be it psychological or somatic—may prevail over another, without necessarily indicating the cause of the problem. Sometimes the various symptoms are so intricately linked that one problem will not exist without the other, and will therefore be labeled “psychosomatic.” In this issue, we have aimed to summarize current knowledge in this field, propose explanatory mod- els, and give examples of somatic diseases with which psychiatric disorders are often asso- ciated. It is clear that there are many examples of such diseases, and the examples cov- ered here are far from exhaustive. However, we felt that it was important to address this important field. The understanding of somatic illness and its consequences on the psychology of the individual should be useful in the diagnosis of a psychological disorder and the choice of an appropriate treatment. Should we envisage symptomatic treatment or therapy directed at the etiopathogenesis? Will the treatment of caudal pancreatitis improve the hallucinatory syndrome observed in such cases? Will the treatment of Cushing’s syn- drome help the depression induced by adrenal hypercorticoidism? We hope that this review will fuel some of your own ideas. Yours sincerely, Jean-Paul Macher, MD Marc-Antoine Crocq, MD E d i t o r i a l D 1 0 9