Comorbidity of Mental and Physical Disorders: A Major Challenge for Medicine in the 21^st Century

Abstract

Demographic changes and successes of medicine in preserving and prolonging life are among the main reasons for the significant increase of comorbidity of mental and physical illness. The simultaneous presence of these disorders leads to a worse prognosis of both types of disorder, significant increases of cost of treatment and heightened mortality.

Although these facts are becoming known among members of the profession and among decision makers in the field of health little is done to provide adequate and timely treatment and care for all the diseases from which a person suffers. The fragmentation of medicine into ever finer and more narrow specialties contributes to the decreasing quality of care for people who have the misfortune of having comorbid mental and physical illnesses as does the stigma of mental illness which decreases the probability of timely help and leads to well documented discrimination of those who have mental illness in health services.

The paper will present some information about comorbidity of mental and physical disorders and suggest reforms of health care that might help to resolve the problems which comorbidity produces.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.