The Lancet Psychiatry
Psychosomatic medicine investigates the relationships between social, psychological, and behavioural factors on bodily processes and health. This field is an important area of medicine in Germany, and one that Stephan Zipfel, current head and chair of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the University of Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany) finds utterly fascinating: “The interplay between the effects that psychological factors can have on the course of physical illnesses is just as exciting as the question of how psychological illnesses are also associated with somatic secondary diseases.”