[Psychosomatical approach to Hyperemesis gravidarum]

Vomiting of pregnancy is a physiological symptom of the first trimester and is a frequent reason for consultation in emergency as well as hospitalization in the severe forms (Hyperemesis gravidarum). Though strong the aversion usually developed against the hospitalized patients for H. gravidarum may be, it is important to understand the distress of these women with a symptom difficult to endure, which often reflects a psychical conflict with respect to their pregnancy. The gynecologist must be the somatic doctor who deals with the symptom and its sometimes disastrous clinical consequences, whereas the psychologist or the psychiatrist plays a fundamental role in this pathology. Indeed, he will lead the patient to work on how she feels her pregnancy, to give it a place in her personal history and to understand her contradictory feelings with regard to this pregnancy.