Abstract
In large hospitals, gastorintestinal psychosomatic patients are usually treated in general medical wards. We herein describe a case where a patient with psychogenic vomiting was treated in a general medical ward in accordance with the 5 following principles : 1) We meticulously examined the patient. 2) Psychosomatic psysicians pretended to be gastrointestinal physicians. 3) The chief physicians performed the main examinations (endoscopy, barium enema, etc.). 4) We informed the patient and his family about the functional disease in detail. 5) We did not initially treat the psychological problems. We explained to the patient and his family that symptoms of patients without organic disease are not necessarily psychogenic.The patient was an 18-year-old male who visited our hospital because of nausea, vomiting and general fatigue. His father seemed to suspect that the symptoms were psychogenic. However, we were careful to treat the patient as a regular medical case. Treating this case intentionally as non-psychogenic resulted in the patient's speedy recovery.
