[Psychosomatic-psychosocial need and care status in an acute-care hospital--results of a survey of internal medicine medical staff].

A questionnaire submitted in 1986 to ward physicians in internal medicine in 9 out of 11 public hospitals (eight General Hospitals and the University Hospital) in the city of Hamburg documents their remarkable awareness of psychosocial problems. Noticeable, however, is the comparably low assessment of the prevalence of psychosomatic diseases. The desire for assistance through a psychosomatic consultation service is much greater than actual rates of request. The status of psychosomatic care is judged to be very unsatisfactory. The collected data and the broad agreement to integrate psychosomatic forms of organization into the care of medical in-patients lead to the conclusion that there is an encouragingly great readiness to co-operate. Considering the very different experiences found in already existing models, the results indicate the necessity of a more in-depth examination of the process of co-operation between somatics and psychosomatics.