[Current views of psychosomatic diseases].

This review is designed to analyse current views of physicians representing different fields of medicine (psychoanalysis, pathological anatomy, psychiatry, etc.) on the problem of psychosomatic diseases with reference to its history, past and present concepts, etiopathogenetic mechanisms of these conditions. The authors propose to use the results of analysis as a basis for considering psychosomatic diseases as a singular etiopathogenetic entity resulting from dysregulation of rhythm-organizing structures.

[Functional disorders from the perspective of V.KH.Vasilenko's theory].

The authors turn down the concept of functional disease alluding to the experience of brilliant Russian clinicians and morphologies. Their reasoning is that the adoption of this concept interferes with the correct understanding of the nature and management of a given disease.

[Mental disorders and gastrointestinal pathology. Part 1].

Current medical literature pays increasingly more attention to diseases collectively referred to as psychosomatoses. Combination of psychic and somatic disorders in a single patient is a common occurrence. Timely recognition of psychic problems in patients managed in general practice settings not only increases efficacy of the treatment process at large but also permits to avoid unnecessary prescription of potent drugs, surgical intervention, and inappropriate hospitalization in case of a psychic disease disguised under a somatic disorder.

[The role of melatonin in the development of psychosomatic diseases].

Relationship between psychic and somatic disorders is currently a most widely discussed problem. The published results of relevant research reflect controversial views of internists and psychiatrists. The aim of this paper is to elucidate common mechanisms underlying some psychosomatic diseases based on the chronobiological approach with special reference to abnormal production of melatonin (main rhythm-controlling hormone) resulting in the disturbance of biological rhythms (desynchronosis).

[Psychic disorders and gastrointestinal pathology. Part 2].

The problem of nosological forms of somatic diseases associated with psychic disorders is discussed as exemplified by gastrointestinal pathology (duodenal ulcer, ulcerative colitis, irritated bowl syndrome). Implication of such diseases provides a basis for regarding certain pathological conditions as specific clinical variants in which somatic and psychic constituents are integrated into a single morbid complex.