[The psychotherapy of astheno-hypochondriacal disorders in patients with somatic pathology at a clinic for borderline states].

Overall 90 patients aged 35 to 55 years with somatic pathology treated at the clinic for borderline conditions were examined. Astheno-hypochondriac disorders appeared dominant in 41 patients while in 22 patients the disorders were of more partial character, the hypochondriac symptoms, even pronounced to the degree of hyperquantivalent ideas, were relatively unstable, bearing the traces of exaggeration, "defensiveness", affective disorders were labile. Nineteen patients showed subdepressive disorders with a tinge of "endogenicity", masked by astheno-hypochondriac and somatic complaints. In the first group, the psychotherapeutic policy was based on the unraveling and destruction of the "conventionally profitable" mechanisms of neurotic responding and on the formation of the emotionally saturated dominant in the solution of real life problems. Cognitive psychotherapy was predominant in the second group receiving small doses of psychotropic agents (antidepressants and tranquilizers). Psychotherapy made it possible not only to reduce the main astheno-hypochondriac disorders but also to attain steady compensation for somatic disorders.