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Psychiatric and General Medical Comorbidity

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Person Centered Psychiatry

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Abstract

The observation that chronic disorders occur together frequently has become of increasing interest as it is now viewed as the norm and not the exception. Of concern is the increasing trend of comorbidity in younger populations especially in areas of socioeconomic deprivation and low income countries. There are reasons why comorbidity is of great importance not only in the context of diagnostic classification, aetiology and pathogenesis but also for models of health-care delivery, rationalisation of pharmacotherapy, patients’ self management and the complex simultaneous utilisation of health-care systems. There is a need, therefore, for a better understanding of the coexistence of various diseases in order to develop more effective and cost-effective interventions to improve health and social outcomes. Comorbidity in medicine is now viewed as one of the major challenges in the twenty-first century in terms of prevention and treatment. With comorbidity comes the increasing risk of mental health problems especially depression leading to potentially more complications and worse prognosis overall. It is already well established that those with severe mental illness suffer increased comorbid conditions and a reduced life expectancy due to predominantly comorbid cardiovascular problems. Fragmentation in the health-care system and the current single disease model only exacerbate the problem of effectively helping people experiencing comorbidities and especially comorbidities involving both mental and physical conditions. New ways of thinking are required to redesign healthcare systems for the development of effective early intervention and screening to treat coexisting conditions and enable clinicians to deliver more integrated person-centred care to improve health outcomes and quality of life for this population.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consultant Psychiatrist, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, UK

    Helen L. Millar MBChB, MRCPsych

  2. Carseview Centre, 4 Tom McDonald, Dundee, DD2 1NH, UK

    Helen L. Millar MBChB, MRCPsych

  3. Professor of Psychiatry, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    Ihsan M. Salloum MD, MPH

  4. Chair, Section on Classification, Diagnostic Assessment and Nomenclature, World Psychiatric Association, Geneva, Switzerland

    Ihsan M. Salloum MD, MPH

Authors
  1. Helen L. Millar MBChB, MRCPsych
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  2. Ihsan M. Salloum MD, MPH
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Helen L. Millar MBChB, MRCPsych .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Psychiatry, New York University Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Juan E. Mezzich

  2. Laboratory Ethics, Professionalism, University of Western Brittany, Bohars, France

    Michel Botbol

  3. Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    George N. Christodoulou

  4. Department of Psychiatry, WASHINGTON UNIV SCH MED Department of Psychiatry, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

    C. Robert Cloninger

  5. Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

    Ihsan M. Salloum

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Millar, H.L., Salloum, I.M. (2016). Psychiatric and General Medical Comorbidity. In: Mezzich, J., Botbol, M., Christodoulou, G., Cloninger, C., Salloum, I. (eds) Person Centered Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_33

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39722-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39724-5

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