An american board of psychiatry and neurology (ABPN) subspecialization in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders and symptoms in medically ill patients. This includes treatment of patients with acute or chronic medical, neurological, obstetrical, or surgical illness in which psychiatric illness is affecting their medical care and/or quality of life such as HIV infection, organ transplantation, heart disease, renal failure, cancer, stroke, traumatic brain injury, high-risk pregnancy, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, among others. Patients also may be those who have a psychiatric disorder that is the direct consequence of a primary medical condition, or a somatoform disorder or psychological factors affecting a general medical condition. Psychiatrists specializing in psychosomatic medicine provide consultation-liaison services in general medical hospitals, attend on medical psychiatry inpatient units, and provide collaborative care in primary care and other outpatient settings.
That branch of medical practice concerned with the study and treatment of psychosomatic disorders.
That branch of medicine concerned with the relationship of mental and emotional reactions to body processes, especially the way in which emotional conflicts affect physical symptoms.
A medical orientation that assumes some physical illness symptoms are the result of mental and emotional processes and approaches treatment accordingly.