They cannot find anything wrong! Seven keys to understanding, treating, and healing stress illness

New health policy in the United States is finally demanding integrated medicine along with the development and utilization of outcomes measures for cost containment and to increase quality of care. For many places, especially rural health clinics, this is a new concept. The traditional family practice setting is one that promotes seeing as many patients as possible in a day, spending an average of 7–15 minutes with each patient. If a patient has something more complex, they are often sent to one or more specialists to diagnose what are eventually determined to be ‘medically unexplained symptoms.’ Thousands of dollars, and years of frustration are spent on expensive testing and hospitalizations to treat symptoms of mystery ailments. Most of these are not somatic. In fact, the symptoms and consequences are very real, but primary care providers have rarely taken the time to determine of a patient has ‘stress illness.’ Evaluating patients for psychiatric issues that can physically cause major illness is the theme of this book. Stress illness is an important factor to consider when integrating behavioral and physical care into primary care on a daily basis. The recognition of stress illness can heal patients, and can prevent costly unfruitful trips to specialists.