Psychosomatic rehabilitation: Self-image, rehabilitative concepts, psychotherapeutic orientation, issues related to requirements and indications

To provide optimal medical care for patients with psychosomatic disorders, rehabilitation and acute medicine should be viewed as separate but related parts of one overall health care concept. Psychosomatic rehabilitation now plays a major role in the care of chronically ill patients beyond the frame work of traditional medical psychotherapy. The self image and rehabilitativ e concepts of this field are strongly influenced by two cornerstones of psy chotherapy: psychodynamics and behavioral science. In the past the main fac tors used to define requirements for inpatient care were the capcity of exi sting facilities and the degree of their utilization; what was and still is lacking is an expert assessment of real demand. By offering programs for a broad spectrum of chronic disorders, the field of psychosomatic rehabilita tion has achieved impressive therapeutic results at moderate cost; this ass ertion is substantiated by numerous analyses of the health care system. How ever, the high quality standard in the field of psychosomatic rehabilitatio n is currently endangered by politically motivated economic measures and th e accompanying reduction of therapy time. If this counterproductive trend i s not halted, the inevitable outcome will be suboptimal - in particular for chronically ill patients, In conclusion, possibilities are outlined for im proved networking among professionals in psychosomatic rehabilitation.