[Strategies of behavioral medicine in physically severely ill patients]

With physically seriously handicapped patients very often vital functions break down or threaten to break down so that they have to be in intensive care units. They need an elaborate therapy and care that is primarily determined by technical monitoring. The severe illness, the situation of the in-patient treatment and the patients' personality determine the psychotherapy. Behavioral strategies are effective for the reduction of unwanted behavior patterns and the condition of desired behavior patterns. The systematic desensibilization to disaccustom to an apparatus once vital to the patient, the psychological-behavior directed approach in the research of depression as well as several conditioning methods for the organization of operant behavior patterns are to be mentioned here.