Advances in discovering the interrelationship between mental disorders and heart diseases

In clinical practise physical illnesses are often accompanied by mental abnormality. Actually due to the development of our modern medical system, the underlying mental abnormality has been increasingly discovered, which in turn not only surprises researchers with the unexpected high morbidity, but also arouse the intense debate whether there is an interaction between mental disorders and physical illnesses. The attempt trying to figure out the mystery of mind and body can date back to the ancient time. It was not until 1818, the German psychiatrist Heinroth proposed the concept of mind-body disease for the first time. Later, William Osler successfully proved the close interaction between coronary heart disease and mental illness by dissecting cadaver of a patient with “angina” finding the coronary perfectly healthy. Owing to the importance of the cardiovascular system and the high sensitivity to the autonomic nervous system which is strongly influenced by the emotion, the intersection of cardiology and psychology gradually became the central issue in studying the physical and mental illness and eventually formed a new branch called “psycho-cardiology”.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-SA

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