An Integrative Model for the Treatment of Psychosomatic Disorders
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics February 12, 2010 Hector Warnes 6 citations
Slow wave sleep and REM sleep, along with associated dreams, are important for understanding psychosomatic illness and prevention. Ten patients with various psychosomatic illnesses slept 3–4 nights in a Dream Laboratory; those with schizophrenia, severe depression, acute physical illness, or organic deficits were excluded. The authors postulated that higher psychosomatic 'penetrance'—indicated by poverty of fantasy life, feelings of helplessness, absence of dream reports, vacant emotional expression, and poor psychological mindedness—would correlate with psychological test results, dream content, and REM/stage 4 deficits. Higher penetrance was not found in all psychosomatic patients but specifically in those with ulcerative colitis, and it related to physiological, psychological, and interpersonal parameters.