Psychotherapeutic Treatment of Idiopathic Cardiomyopathy: A Case Study

The referral of an extremely anxious young. Black mother suffering from idiopathic cardiomyopathy to a local psychotherapy clinic by her internist for evaluation and treatment caused consternation among the professional staff (psychologists and psychiatric social workers). Although all felt competent to assess and manage the patient's anxiety, none felt comfortable with the serious physical manifestations of the cardiopathy. When a nursing faculty member who was supervising graduate nursing students in the agency volunteered to take the case, the assignment was readily made. This paper is a description of the course of treatment of that client. Following a brief review of the literature on psychosomatic illness and idiopathic cardiomyopathy, the client is described and the course of treatment detailed. Then the theories that served as the basis for the clinical interventions are identified, and the shift from the psychodynamic to the Bowen Family Systems approach is discussed.