One measure of the rising interest in mind-body medicine is the increasing entry of young physicians into specialties that focus on the interface between mental and physical disorders. Yet there is a dire need for controlled, clinical trials of treatments that address this interface in a variety of complex disorders. Such evidence-based support is especially important to doctors who specialize in psychosomatic medicine, because they face a cost-cutting threat from managed care groups. These were the themes and warnings of the 46th annual meeting of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (APM), Nov. 18-21, 1999, in New Orleans.
The Chicago-based APM is the organization for consultation and liaison (C/L) psychiatry, which is concerned with the interactions between medical and psychiatric illnesses in patients. "We're the commandos of the SWAT team in psychiatry," declared Thomas N. Wise, a psychiatry professor at both Georgetown University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University...
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