[Elderly patients in psychosomatic psychotherapeutic institutions]

With the aid of a comparative study of the data collected in the Berlin Psychotherapy Study and the outpatient clinic of the Psychosomatic Clinic (University of Heidelberg), the allocation and utilization modalities of elderly patients with regard to psychosomatic-psychotherapeutic institutions is investigated. One important result seems to be the high rate of psychodynamically understandable triggering situations (as a measurement of psychological comprehension of the symptoms) and the consequent therapy recommendations (as a measurement of treatability) even for elderly patients. A case study will demonstrate that the danger may arise to subsume new somatic symptoms in the elderly under the aspect "multimorbidity" and thus withhold recommended psychotherapeutic treatment.