The History, present state, and future prospects of the Asian College of Psychosomatic Medicine (ACPM)

Abstract

<p>Abstract</p> <p>The Asian College of Psychosomatic Medicine (ACPM) was founded as the Asian Chapter of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine (ICPM-AC) in Tokyo on April 12, 1982.</p> <p>The first president was Hitoshi ISHIKAWA (Japan), the vice-presidents were Mahalingam MAHADEVAN (Malaysia) and Burton G.BURTON-BRADLEY (Papua- New Guinea), and the general secretary was Sueharu TSUTSUI (Japan).</p> <p>Five years previously, preparation for creation of the ICPM-AC was started at the 4^thWorld Congress of the International College of Psychosomatic Medicine (ICPM) held in Kyoto, Japan, September 5-9, 1977.</p> <p>The First Congress of the ICPM-AC was held by the President Yujiro IKEMI in Tokyo on May 19-20, 1984. The main members in the early stage were Y. IKEMI, H. ISHIKAWA, S. TSUTSUI, Taisaku KATSURA, Tetsuya NAKAGAWA. Hiroyuki SUEMATSU and others from Japan and Hsien RIN (Taiwan), Seock Young KANG (Korea), M. MAHADEVAN. B.G. BURTON-BRADLEY and others from other Asian countries.</p> <p>Thereafter, academic congresses of the ICPM-AC, the 2^ndto the 9^th, were held approximately every two years, in Japan, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, and China. The name was changed to the Asian College of Psychosomatic Medicine (ACPM), and the 10^thto 14^thcongresses were held in Taiwan, Okinawa (Japan), Australia, Korea, and China.</p> <p>The current president of the Executive Board of ACPM is Chiharu KUBO, the Director of Kyushu University Hospital.</p> <p>The next academic congress is the 15^thACPM and will be hosted by Tserenkhuugyin LKHAGVASUREN in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from August 24-26, 2012.</p> <p>Participating countries have expanded to include Asian-Oceanic countries such as Mongolia, Micronesia, Australia and Sri Lanka.</p> <p>The main themes of the congresses have focused on psychosomatic disorders, culture - bound syndromes, oriental medicine, etc... To date,"Health promotion"by raising the level of mental health based on psychoneuroendocrinoimmunomodulation has been very important. Prevention is also important in the Asia - Oceana area, from the viewpoints of both psychosomatics and culture.</p> <p>Above all, an awareness of existential, authentic health is a sure way to promote healthy longevity and psychosomatic well - being.</p> <p>To pursue happiness and well-being subjectively, objectively, and ecologically will be the most important purposes of ACPM in the future.</p

Illness representations, psychological distress and non-cardiac chest pain in patients attending an emergency department

“…The perception of psychological causes and a more chronic timeline were the only illness representation dimensions that consistently predicted psychological outcomes in this study. This is in contrast to previous research in NCCP, which has found that more of the dimensions to be predictive of outcomes, including identity, consequences, control and emotional representations (Donkin et al, 2006 ; Jonsbu et al, 2012 ; Schroeder et al, 2012 ). This difference may be due to the fact that previous studies have used the brief IPQ (Broadbent et al, 2006 ), which uses single items to assess each dimension.…”

“…The perception of psychological causes and a chronic timeline were related to elevated levels of psychological distress and poorer QoL, which, in turn, were related to continued chest pain. This supports previous findings that illness representations are related to psychological morbidity (Jonsbu et al, 2012 ; Schroeder et al, 2012 ). Illness representations may therefore be important targets for intervention to reduce initial levels of psychological distress, which may, in turn, reduce the experience of chest pain.…”

“…In line with the CSM (Leventhal et al, 1980 ) and previous research on NCCP (e.g. Jonsbu et al, 2012 ; Schroeder et al, 2012 ; Webster et al, 2012 ), it was hypothesised that (i) illness representations would be associated with levels of psychological distress and QoL at baseline (i.e. after being informed of a NCCP diagnosis in an ED) and that (ii) baseline illness representations, psychological distress and QoL would be related to chest pain at one month.…”

“…stronger illness identity, the perception of more severe consequences and a longer timeline, increased illness concern and stronger emotional representations) assessed at baseline were related to lower levels of reassurance following a negative exercise stress test. Jonsbu, Martinsen, Morken, Moum, and Dammen ( 2012 ) found that more negative illness representations assessed prior to cardiac stress testing were related to increased depression, worse QoL and chest pain, both prior to testing and six months later. Schroeder et al ( 2012 ) found that more negative consequences, more chronic timeline, stronger illness identity, and greater concern and emotional representations were related to more severe chest pain prior to diagnostic testing.…”

“…Given that anxiety has previously been shown to be strongly associated with NCCP (Smeijers et al, 2013 ; White, Craft, & Gervino, 2010 ), this may be an important factor to assess. Fourth, previous studies have employed cross-sectional designs (Schroeder et al, 2012 ) or have assessed patients pre-diagnosis (before they were aware that their pain was non-cardiac), which may have impacted on their responses (Jonsbu et al, 2012 ; Robertson et al, 2008 ; Schroeder et al, 2012 ). Fifth, previous studies have been conducted in outpatient departments (Donkin et al, 2006 ; Jonsbu et al, 2012 ; Robertson et al, 2008 ; Schroeder et al, 2012 ), and therefore the patients may differ from those who are examined in an ED.…”