Psychosomatic Medicine in Germany: More Timely than Ever

In Germany, psychosomatic medicine is not a subspecialty of psychiatry, although it has clear connections in terms of shared models, methods, and overlapping care for patients. At some places, most prominently in Heidelberg and Tbingen, departments of psychosomatic medicine are part of overarching departments for internal medicine. The institutional independence of psychosomatic medicine in Germany is largely due to German psychiatry resisting the integration of psychotherapy as a core method. Hence, psychosomatic medicine developed independently as an institutional and academic basis for psychotherapy in medicine and later for integrated care models.