[Psychological follow-up of 52 patients in an internal medicine service at the Territorial Hospital Center of Papeete (Tahiti)].

This prospective study of a duration of 7 months was made on 52 patients admitted in a International Medicine Service and watched over psychological aspect. The sample was composed mainly of Polynesians, two third of them being females. On the somatic aspect, the complaint more frequently recorded is a painful condition. Diagnosis of depressive status is made about almost half of the patients. The most obvious point is that Polynesian depressive patients are young and they expressed their profound discomfort not only by a suicidal attitude but also by a symptomatology in which body, body surface are the privileged significants.