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The essential
mission of the American Psychosomatic Society is to
promote and advance the scientific understanding of the
interrelationships among biological, psychological, social and
behavioral factors in human health and disease, and the integration
of
the fields of science that separately examine each, and to foster
the
application of this understanding in education and improved
health care.
The last half of this century has been
a time of unprecedented growth in our
understanding of human behavior and biology. A fuller description
of the biological
substrates that promote health or create disease is evolving.
These data emerge
from new analytic techniques that better assess the spectrum
of biobehavioral
phenomena from observable human behavior to cellular biology.
Such information can
illuminate relationships between health and disease, psychology
and physiology and
thereby suggest new treatment regimens in medicine, psychiatry
and psychology.
Thus, techniques of observing and analyzing human behavior emanating
from and acting
upon the fundamental structure and function of cells and tissues
are important to our
understanding the maintenance of health, in lessening the susceptibility
to disease, and in
enhancing many treatment regimens in medicine, psychiatry and
psychology.
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The task of psychosomatic medicine is to understand
the nature and mechanisms of behavior and psychosocial encounters
that may alter the development of the organism, its structure and
its functions. Maladaptations and failure of integration in the interactions
between an individual and the environment lead to disabling illnesses.
These events require careful study and analysis.
The understanding of these
events, provided by psychosomatic research and clinical studies, is
an essential ingredient for the comprehensive understanding of human
disease in order to lessen the burden of human suffering. The study
of these factors and their assimilation into medical teaching and
practice are central to the mission of the Society.
PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS
AND ACTIVITIES OF MEMBERS
The Society is a forum for the discussion
of data from any discipline that may enhance our understanding of
the complex relationships that have led to a new appreciation of how
mind and body interact in the maintenance of health and the causation
of disease. This includes: basic studies of brain, behavior and bodily
disease relationships; basic and applied psychopharmacological studies;
demographic, transcultural and epidemiologic studies of the risk factors
and natural history of disease; clinical studies of the risk factors
and natural history of disease; and clinical studies derived from
insights that emerge from the laboratory, all of which address the
biopsychosocial and behavioral interactions that influence adaptive
processes. Another important area for investigation is the multiplicity
of factors that enter into the physician-patient relationship, and
their potential significance. In summary, the Society is dedicated
to psychosomatic research in various disciplines and the application
of this new knowledge in the education of professionals and the care
of patients.
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