Noopsychosomatic Disorders in the Light of Empirical Studies‪.‬

The concept of health Heath psychology is a new area that has emerged within psychology only recently. It has involved drawing on findings in clinical psychology, psychosomatic medicine, behavioral medicine and medical psychology. In contrast to the earlier focus on pathological phenomena, i.e. illnesses or disorders, health psychology concentrates on health. The father of health psychology, Joseph Matarazzo, writes that "health psychology is the aggregate of the specific educational, scientific, and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, the identification of etiological and diagnostic correlates of health, illness, and related dysfunction, and the improvement of the health care system and health policy formation" (Matarazzo, 1980, p.815). Indeed, health psychology draws on and embraces theories, findings and practices of both medical, natural and social sciences.