The present conditions and future perspective of psychosomatic medical education

In the University of Tokyo, we have performed the psychosomatic medical education for all medical students since 1987. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the efficacy and the significance of the psychosomatic medical education. In this paper, we would like to emphasize the importance of bedside teaching (BST) in a small group. The aim of BST is the training of psychosomatic methods for diagnosis and treatment by using oneself as the teaching materials. One-week schedule of BST includes the interview training, the presentation of eating disorder patients, the practice of psychological tests, the intake interview of outpatients, the experience of autogenic training and play therapy using a miniature garden, the practice of gestalt therapy, behavior therapy (biofeedback therapy) and transactional analysis and others. Subjects of this study were 675 medical students (619 men and 56 women) for seven years from 1987 to 1993. We summed up and took the statistic of all free-style reports. The results of this study indicated that the experience learning was useful for understanding the psychosomatic medical model, and that many students recognized the needs of the holistic medical approach for any clinical department. The goal of the psychosomatic medical education is to introduce a psychosocial viewpoint in medicine in addition to biological one, and to cultivate the attitude of holistic medical approach including doctor-patient relationship for all medical students. For this purpose, it might be needed to make a guideline of psychosomatic medical education and to establish a psychosomatic medical department in all medical colleges.