[Cooperation of psychology and anesthesiology in intensive care medicine]

Intensive care cannot consist only of monitoring and compensatory measures in organ system failure, but likewise must comprise psychological treatment of the patient. In this field psychology and anaesthesiology share a unique opportunity to get insight into neurobiological relations of human behaviour. If psychological investigation of the intensive care patient is understood as a behavioural analysis related to biological function, then anaesthesiology may contribute substantially to this evaluation. Moreover important information on prolonged but subtle influences of anaesthetics on central nervous system function, may be gained and expand our as yet poor knowledge in this field.