title: Psychorehabilitation aspects in older age groups.
abstract: Throughout medical history, suggestion is the oldest and most common method of relieving human distress and treating physical disease. One of the oldest Egyptian documents, the Ebers Papyrus (1552 BC) states, "Lay your hands upon him to quiet the pain in the arms and say that the pain will disappear." The psychogenic and therapeutic potency of Native American trance dances are also well documented. In a North American tribe practicing ancient traditions, such dances were found to produce an altered feeling for time, loss of conscious control, drastic emotional outbreaks, illusions, hypersuggestibility, and a deep feeling of restored youthfulness (Jilek, 1982). These and other historical documents show the deep historical connection between somatic and mental processes. From the viewpoint of a neurologist or a psychiatrist, a combination of somatic illness, depressive syndromes, organic psychosyndromes, and multimorbidity is frequent in elderly patients (Kortus, 1992). Thus, integrated psychotherapy in geriatric rehabilitation is necessary and useful. Practical psychotherapeutic methods are discussed in this manuscript.
authors.affiliation: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Neurorehabilitation and Prophylaxis, Rankweil, Austria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Barolin
mesh_terms: D001326:Autogenic Training; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012046:Rehabilitation / Q000379:methods*