Physical illness caused by psychosocial stress is a clinical dilemma that was known to Hippocrates nearly 2500 years ago. We still don’t have a good solution. Medical clinicians aren’t trained to ask about people’s lives and connect what they find with symptoms. Mental health clinicians don’t see too many patients whose main concern is pain or other body symptoms. But I’m optimistic that in the 21st century will see growing use of good solutions.
Posts Tagged ‘Hippocrates’
Stress Illness and The Health Care System (1)
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010Stress Illness in Ancient Times
Saturday, November 21st, 2009Stress-related illness is not a new disease. Greek physicians of the school of Hippocrates (460 – 377 BCE) recognized a disorder characterized by symptoms commonly seen in stress illness today: palpitations, migrating pain, difficulty breathing, a lump in the throat and others. This was diagnosed exclusively in women and attributed to the uterus wandering around inside the body. The Greek word for uterus (hystera) gave the disorder its name, hysteria, and this was a common diagnosis through the early 20th century. The term was finally dropped by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980, replaced with conversion disorder.
