Discourse ethics in practical medicine.

Problems emerge in practical medicine because the binary ethics of the classic patient/doctor relationship has been replaced by multiagent interaction between those engaged in the process of diagnosis and treatment. New methods are required to deal with complex problems in every patient. Where and why the current practice can fail is illustrated with an example of an unspectacular routine case of cancer.

[Interdisciplinary longitudinal curriculum "Medical psychology, psychotherapy and psychosomatics" (MPPP) at the University of Ulm].

We report the clinical part of the longitudinal curriculum MPPP which was developed by the departments of Medical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine at the University of Ulm. The commitment and creativity of the participating students in their two undergraduate years inspired us to offer them an interest-guided curriculum for their six clinical semesters. Our paper reports the extensive results of two evaluations that we conducted during the clinical part of this new teaching-model.

[Interdisciplinary longitudinal curriculum "Medical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics." Experiences from the preclinical segment].

The departments of Medical Psychology, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy developed an interdisciplinary longitudinal curriculum in order to coach medical students for the whole length of their medical education. Experiences from the first four undergraduate semesters are reported. 46 students (33 females, 13 males), mean age 22.

[Educational reform in medical education--effects of the 8th revision of the medical approbation regulation on the psychosomatic/psychotherapy specialty].

Since the end of 1993 a draft of the 8th revision of the Educational Rules in Medicine (Arztliche Approbationsordnung) was published by the Federal Ministry of Health, suggesting substantial changes of ways and contents of medical education the consequences of which for university departments of psychosomatics and psychotherapy are discussed in this paper.

Group therapy for asthma patients: a concept for the psychosomatic treatment of patients in a medical clinic--a controlled study.

Asthma patients pose special problems as far as the medical supervision, danger of symptoms and the course of the disease are concerned. Some 90 asthma patients were registered for the treatment in the Heidelberg Medical Clinic. 31 patients who were interested in taking part were randomized into 3 groups: two treatment group consisted of the exchange of information, discussion sessions on the illness as well as 'autogenic training' or 'functional relaxation'.