[Specialty specific psychotherapy in internal medicine].

The establishment of a bio-psycho-social (monistic) approach to all problems of human health and disease is regarded as an essential prerequisite for the improvement of medical care. As a rule the special and functional pathology is on account of the psychotherapeutic approach enlarged by the "relation pathology" and adequate therapeutic techniques at this level. The associated with this increasing requirements on the social competence of the physician involve measures at the level of the medical education, to which psychotherapy and medical psychology have to contribute. This takes place in the framework of the particular integrative function of these specialties to render the psychosocial dimension methodically manageable for medicine. The state programmes for the method-related qualification in psychotherapy are a good basis for the integration of the psychosocial dimension into the practice of internal medicine. However, they need supplementation by measures in the pregraduate education.