Pharmacotherapy for the soul and psychotherapy for the body.
The "mind-body" dualism has shaped the development of psychiatry. At the very beginning psychiatry was related to the mind and the rest of the medicine to the body. The main reasons for such division were lack of biological evidence for psychiatric disorders and wrong beliefs about demonic origins of "lunacy". But although the development of science offered more than enough biological evidence to understand brain as an organ of origin for psychiatric disorders, the dualism of mind and body remained alive even in the modern classification systems. One of the consequences was another dualism that differ biological (e.g. pharmacotherapy) from psychological therapy (e.g. psychotherapy) as completely different approaches. The purpose of this article is to offer enough evidence to reframe the existing dualisms into a different paradigm. In every illness both mind and body can be affected to a different extent. Which part of an illness is body and which part is mind is often difficult to differentiate even when we compare a person with broken leg with a person with acute stress reaction. For that reason it might be an over-simplification to differentiate sharply between biological and psychological therapies. The evidence show that psychotherapy influences biology of the brain and that pharmacotherapy influences psychological, social and developmental dimensions of the diseased person as well as overall well-being and functionality. In the era where medicine discovered psychology and psychiatry discovered biology, the debates and divisions that steam out of past dualisms should end. Every practising physician regardless of the medical discipline uses in everyday practice both biological and psychological approaches to help the patient successfully.
Groleger
Urban
U
University Psychiatric Hospital, Studenec 48, SI-1260, Ljubljana, Slovenia. urban.groleger@psih-klinika.si
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000187:drug effects; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D011613:Psychotherapy; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D011619:Psychotropic Drugs