Special outpatient department for gastroenterological psychosomatics

The special outpatient clinic for gastroenterological psychosomatics primarily serves the initial psychosomatic assessment and psychosomatic care of patients with chronic inflammatory and functional gastrointestinal diseases, as well as patients with hepatitis C. The outpatient clinic is operated as an appointment-based outpatient clinic.

The outpatient clinic is run as an appointment outpatient clinic. The outpatient clinic staff (currently 2 psychologists and one specialist) also provide inpatient care via consultation requests.

Mode of referral: Referrals from the AKH/inpatient area are made via consultation requests, which are sent by fax to the house key 47350 (with the reference "To the Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinic"). Outpatients receive an initial consultation appointment via the 7i control center at 40400 47500 (with a specialist referral and referral diagnosis only), which takes place with the psychologists or the outpatient clinic manager/specialist.

The focus of the special outpatient clinic is an initial internal psychosomatic exploration (50 to 100 minutes). On the basis of this, further therapeutic offers or consultations are made and a written, if possible also an oral report is given to the referring physician. If indicated, further (organic and psychodiagnostic) examinations are also arranged. The therapeutic offer includes:

• Initial internistic-psychosomatic exploration
• Clinical psychological diagnostics
• Clinical psychological counseling and treatment
• Focussing medical bratation interviews
• Supportive or psychodynamically oriented short-term psychotherapy
• Longer-term psychological and psychotherapeutic care of patients with severe chronic gastrointestinal complaints and diseases
• Gut-directed hypnotherapy (primarily in a group setting) for selected patients with functional or inflammatory bowel disease
• Referral discussions and referral to institutions and persons providing psychotherapeutic care
• Crisis intervention

Psychosomatically oriented research projects with integrated patient care are also carried out within the framework of the outpatient clinic.

Selected patients are used, with their consent, for practical teaching for students (as part of the elective lecture on gastroenterological psychosomatics) and for physicians in the form of "participant observation" (as part of the curriculum for psychosomatic and psychotherapeutic medicine of the Medical Association).