[Therapeutic problems in a specialized care center].

Abstract

Patients with severe somatic disorders producing a wide spectrum of manifestations which are often irreversible are managed by psychoanalysts specialized in psychosomatics in a unique care center, the Poterne des Peupliers Hospital in Paris. Current results--with a five year follow up--show that such care programs are well-founded as concerns both economic costs and validation of the theory on which they are based. Indeed, it appears that, whatever the somatic disease, mental support improves regulation of the patient's general psychosomatic economy, thereby achieving abatement or resolution of somatic manifestations.