Fourth revolution in psychiatry – Addressing comorbidity with chronic physical disorders

The moral treatment of mental patients, Electro Convulsive therapy (ECT), and Psychotropic medications constitute the first, second, and third revolution in psychiatry, respectively. Addressing comorbidities of mental illnesses with chronic physical illnesses will be the fourth revolution in psychiatry. Mind and body are inseparable; there is a bidirectional relationship between psyche and soma, each influencing the other. Plausible biochemical explanations are appearing at an astonishing rate. Psychiatric comorbidity with many chronic physical disorders has remained neglected. Such comorbidity with cardiac, respiratory, Gastrointestinal, endocrinal, and neurological disorders, trauma, and other conditions like HIV and so on, needs to be addressed too. Evidence base of prevalence and causal relationship of psychiatric comorbidities in these disorders has been highlighted and strategies to meet the challenge of comorbidity have been indicated.