What influence do cardiological, social or neurological problems have on psychiatric diseases such as depression and anxiety disorders? This question was addressed by speakers at the symposium "Recognising and Treating Psychiatric Comorbidities".
During the "Mental Health Week", experts shed light on the different aspects of psychiatry. This was also the case with physicians from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and the Ludwig Maximilian University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. They reported on their experiences with the concomitant symptoms of psychiatric illnesses at the symposium "Recognising and Treating Psychiatric Comorbidities". The symposium was divided into four lectures that looked at the influence of heart disease, addiction, dissociations and dementia.
The first speaker was Prof. Susanne Lucae, Deputy Chief Physician at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry with her lecture "Anxiety disorders and depression are frequent companions of cardiovascular diseases". Her lecture is divided into the following sections: Depression and anxiety disorders in CVD: Is there a connection? How can I recognise such disorders? Diagnostics, monitoring, therapy. When do I need a referral to a specialist? When do I need a referral to psychotherapy? Psychiatric emergency, "red flags" correct?
After a heart attack, patients are often accompanied by the fear that such an event could occur again. It is already well established that anxiety disorders and depression occur in cardiovascular diseases. Prof. Lucae also confirms that depression is an independent risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease (CHD) and heart attacks. After a cardiovascular event, depressive comorbidity is associated with an unfavourable course of the physical disease. But what about the other way around? Can heart problems also cause depression to worsen? Susanne Lucae says quite clearly: Yes. What do the CV Guidelines say?
Then, Prof. Oliver Pogarell, Deputy Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the LMU clinic in Munich, reported on addictive disorders and other causes in his lecture "Regular sick leave on Mondays".
Patricia Fonseca, senior physician at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, explains in her lecture "The challenging patient - dissociations and other hard-to-assign behaviours", using the example of a patient in her institution, how to recognise and treat severe psychiatric comorbidities in people with behavioural problems.
Prof. Robert Perneczky from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the LMU clinic takes a close look at one last comorbidity: dementia.