Physical and Mental Health Interactions: An Integral Approach to a Bidirectional Relationship
A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 1775
Special Issue Editors
Interests: clinical psychology; primary mental health care; community psychology; health psychology; psychometrics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: psychiatry; primary mental health care; psychopharmacology; consultation-liaison psychiatry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: circadian rhythms; stress; adrenals; thyroid; cortisol; diabetes; metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The relationship between physical and mental health is complex and inextricably linked. Uncovering the potential pathways that provide evidence for bidirectional causality and understanding the common risk factors that shape individual vulnerability and/or resilience could increase recognition of the importance of integrated care.
As healthcare providers, we have treated people with long-term physical conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who are frequently diagnosed with comorbid common mental disorders, like anxiety and depression. The need for constant symptom management and the lifestyle adjustments required can lead to psychological stress and reduced quality of life. On the other hand, mental health issues affect the ability to participate in healthy behaviors, resulting in problems with physical health and likely influencing treatment and recovery. This is more obvious in people with severe mental disorders who, partly due to physical ill health, have higher rates of morbidity and premature mortality compared with the general population.
Behavioral medicine implemented in consultation-liaison psychiatry combines knowledge and skills from biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of medical conditions through behavioral change and psychological factors management. Health psychology, via the biopsychosocial approach, focuses on how biological, psychological, and social factors influence health and disease, integrating knowledge from different disciplines to realize how people remain healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond, cope, and recover from the disease.
This Special Issue explores the diverse aspects of physical and mental health interactions, identifying how physical health conditions affect mental well-being and vice versa, and highlights the importance of an integrated approach to address these interactions for improved overall health outcomes.
The purpose of this Special Issue is to gather research articles, reviews, and/or meta-analyses on psychological problems in patients with physical health conditions and physical illness in patients with mental disorders, including other studies related to health psychology, behavioral medicine, and consultation-liaison psychiatry.
Dr. Athanassios Tselebis
Dr. Argyro Pachi
Dr. Ioannis Ilias
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- mental health
- physical health
- psychiatric disorders
- physical illness
- physical and mental health comorbidity
- behavioral medicine
- psychological well-being
- health behaviors
- health psychology
- consultation-liaison psychiatry
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
