Short analysis of announced medical dissertations in Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy between 1988-1997

This study presents an analysis of all the announced 392 medical dissertati ons in Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy which were finished between 1988-1997. There is no clear trend to be seen respecting the number of dissertations p er year. The part of women, gaining their doctorate (56,1%) is clearly higher than i n other fields. This high female share contrasts sharply with the fact that the further scientific carreer in this field is extremely dominated by men . The number of supervised dissertations differs clearly with regard to the s everal universities or supervisors. Most of the analysed dissertations dealt with themes on "Psychodiagnostic e xaminations", while studies on handling with illness played also an importa nt role. There is a higher percentage of theses on psychogenic diseases tha n on grievous physical diseases. The sexes of the authors of the dissertati ons concerned are almost without influence on the choice of the studied pop ulation. The only exception are the theses on eating disorders, two thirds of which were written by women.