Die Geschichte der Psychosomatik in Österreich – Fünfter Teil

In the new millennium, a rich, multicolored psychosomatic landscape began to blossom in Austria: Adrian Kamper from the children’s hospital in Wels-Grieskirchen succeeded in integrating psychosomatics and, more recently, child and adolescent psychiatry. The boundaries between psychiatry and psychosomatics that once seemed insurmountable are slowly blurring. Whether an adolescent woman suffering from anorexia nervosa should be a patient of adolescent psychiatry or psychosomatics remained unresolved for a long time—with mutual “insults”—and is also internationally controversial. The pediatricians rightly claimed that they were more knowledgeable about tube feeding and comorbidities; the child and adolescent psychiatrists were able to offer comprehensive individual and family therapy and their knowledge of psychopharmacology. The way it is in 2024 is better: congruent and integrated care from physicians who can offer both equally. The dangers of “labeling” must be taken into account: not everyone who is admitted to such a joint facility as a young person is mentally ill and it can always be that a somatic problem is the cause of the disorder.