Doctors from various specialised fields who are certified in psychosomatic and psychosocial medicine are qualified to detect and treat psychosomatic and psychosocial factors that influence the development and management of diseases.
Psychosomatic medicine is on the one hand a holistic form of patient care and on the other hand a scientific discipline that involves studying the relationship between biological, psychological and social factors as a way of explaining health and disease. Every state of illness or healthiness and every medical examination or medical treatment has psychosocial as well as biological ramifications. Psychosocial and psychosomatic medicine also involves doctors engaging in self-awareness and self-reflection as part of the patient-doctor relationship.