Wolfgang Albert

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Wolfgang Albert

Wolfgang Albert (born August 29, 1950 in Halle ) is a German doctor for psychosomatics and general medicine , a certified psychologist and psychoanalyst . He heads the functional area of ​​psychosomatic medicine and the medical care center at the German Heart Center Berlin (DHZB). Albert is a university professor and director of the Steinbeis Transfer Institute Medical Psychology.

Career

Born in Halle an der Saale, Albert grew up in Munich. He studied psychology and medicine at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and at the Free University of Berlin . In 1978 he passed the state examination and went to Berlin in 1980. There he completed further training as a psychoanalyst at the Institute for Psychoanalysis, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (IPB) . He received his doctorate in 2003 and became a professor in 2011. He is married and has three children.

Act

Since 1987 Albert has built up the functional area of ​​psychosomatic medicine at the German Heart Center Berlin (DHZB), which he has headed since it was officially opened in 1990. He has headed the medical care center there , also initiated by him, since 2005. In December 2010 the Steinbeis Transfer Institute Medical Psychology, which he founded and has been director of, was opened. Since 2011, it has enabled a "first [...] course of study offered in Germany" that interlinks "theoretical knowledge transfer with practical knowledge transfer". All of this happened under Roland Hetzer as medical director .

Albert is - together with his employees - playing a leading role in numerous research projects at the Heart Center. The focus is on the psychological dimensions of physical illnesses. Particular attention is paid to the influence of these diseases or a heart transplant on the patient's quality of life .

“In 1990, Prof. Albert started a research project to record the quality of life, psychological well-being and somatic disease progression of people after a heart transplant. This database will be continued and will provide valuable information regarding the physical and mental well-being of patients 15 to 25 years after a transplant. "

- German Heart Center Berlin

Since heart disease patients develop anxiety or suffer depression after heart surgery , Albert considers it an "ethical obligation to embed high-tech medicine in a holistic care concept ," wrote journalist Bernhard Borgeest in his report in April 2019 the Berlin Heart Center. He described Albert as a "psychosomatic pioneer" in this field. It remains to be seen whether Albert's functional area under Volkmar Falk , who took over from Hetzer's successor in 2014, will be retained in the long term.

Psychosomatics of the Heart

Albert set his research focus on the psychosomatics of the heart early on. This benefited from the fact that he is both a psychologist and a doctor. In an interview that Ralf Geisenhanslüke 2019 in the journal GEO published, the Berlin journalist went to the question whether, after a heart transplant, a "donor heart, the personality of the recipient" embossed why "Men more likely than women" were, an artificial heart running and why terminally ill patients are often plagued by feelings of guilt . In his answers, Albert summarizes the research results presented in numerous scientific publications in a language that is easy to understand.

According to Albert, the heart has a “symbolic meaning”, stands for life and love and has been “the seat of our feelings” since ancient times. Because women "usually have better access to their feelings", they would often view the heart more holistically than men. However, if men forget their “traditional role model” in a one-to-one conversation, they are “no less sensitive than women to the complex meanings of the heart”.

Medically, the gender of the donor and recipient does not play a role, as other parameters are in the foreground. However, men would "less like to have a woman's heart transferred [...] than women would a man's heart". The fact that an operation on the heart usually causes more anxiety for the patient than other operations has to do with the fact that “in the depths of the body” and at the same time with “our unconscious image of the self that is in the first Months of our life has formed ”. Interventions on the heart and lungs touched, according to Albert, the “deepest layers of human consciousness ”.

It will take time for heart and patient to grow together. Albert examined 125 transplant recipients over a period of up to 19 years and found that their performance was "only 25 percent below that of healthy people" and that they were no worse than that of other chronically ill patients. Their mental well-being did not differ from healthy people, but the memory of the operation "occasionally leads to increased anxiety". In contrast, the study showed that their life satisfaction was slightly higher than that of healthy people. For the concern of many patients that characteristics of the donor could be transferred, Albert "never found a clue". If a man has had a woman's heart transplanted and is then “more emotional and thoughtful” than before, it is not because of the organ, but “because the threatening situation has changed him”. The gain in vitality and zest for life means that many patients celebrate their birthdays twice a year. Relatives would often associate negative behaviors with the new heart, but when it comes to that, it has to do with the side effects of the necessary accompanying medication. Immunosuppressants and cortisone occasionally have psychological side effects.

However, patients would have great problems thinking that another person would have to die in order for them to live. This often leads to feelings of guilt and shame . It is sometimes difficult to make patients understand that someone else does not die for them. This conceptual context should be interrupted, because otherwise long-lasting feelings of guilt could arise from it.

The development of artificial heart pumps for patients whose heart, if weak, is still beating, is being “intensively researched”. The problem with this is the power supply to the devices, because infections often form at the point where the power cables enter the skin , explains Albert. Compared to the large devices of the 1980s, however, the feeling of strangeness is significantly lower because an artificial heart is now “about as small as a cigar”. The earlier assumption that a weak heart could no longer recover has not been confirmed either, so that the artificial pump can be removed again in some patients after a certain time.

Unfortunately, according to Albert, people often “get out of their hamster wheel from stress and overload” only when their heart causes problems. According to the “opinion of many patients”, these should then be solved by others. In this way, the body is functionalized and, as it were, given to the hospital for "repair". Some people would live healthier after their hospital stay, but most likely patients with a transplanted heart.

Medical Psychology

The Medical Psychology course, which is well known in the USA and new in Germany, also began in Europe with the institute founded by Albert in Berlin, because until 2011 no comparable course was offered anywhere else in Europe. The aim of the course is to close the gap between medicine and psychology, which was particularly noticeable in everyday clinical practice in hospitals - and thus also in the psychosomatic medicine department at the DHZB, headed by Albert. "The focus of the Medical Psychology course is the inseparable interlinking of physical and psychological processes ... in the sense of holistic medicine ..." and is "reflected in the bio-psycho-social model." On the one hand, the graduates of this course should, on the one hand, the interfaces between doctors and care and, on the other hand, assume a "mediator position between doctors and patients".

While medical psychology is offered postgraduate in the USA, the Berlin institute provides a master’s course. “The courses offered are in the field of high-tech medicine, in which patients and their caregivers are confronted with threatening diseases and highly complex medical therapy methods. This confrontation often manifests itself in psychological disorders without adequate psychological support concepts being available. ... Students should gain practical experience in patient contact and critically reflect on their own experiences. "

In contrast to the - also still young - medical psychology in medical training, psychologists are trained at the Berlin Steinbeis Institute. While the budding medical profession is usually imparted "basic psychological knowledge" in the first third of their studies, the Steinbeis Institute offers in-depth psychological training - in contrast to the usual psychology studies, however, in almost daily contact with seriously ill patients. This occasionally leads to a “practical shock”, as one of the graduates reported.

Honors

  • 2007: Research award for psychotherapy in medicine

Fonts (selection)

  • Psychosocial and somatic predictors for survival and long-term quality of life after heart transplantation (=  progress in cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgery . Volume 5 ). Steinkopff, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 3-7985-1470-4 .
  • Mental health problems with a heart transplant . In: vod-INFORMERT . No. 2 , 2009, p. 9-11 .
  • Long-term quality of life after heart transplantation . In: Journal of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery . tape 25 , no. 1 , June 30, 2011, ISSN  1435-1277 , p. 14-19 , doi : 10.1007 / s00398-011-0833-2 .
  • Quality of life after heart transplant . Shanghai May 26, 2012 ( dhzb.de PDF - original title: Quality of life after heart transplantation. Lecture at the 3rd Expert Forum of the Roland Hetzer International Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery Society).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Institute for Psychoanalysis, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy (IPB). Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b 'There was always an ear'. Mental health problems in heart patients need to be treated quickly. In: KrankenPflege-Journal. September 3, 2011, accessed February 19, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c history. The development of the German Heart Center Berlin. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
  4. ↑ What is the Medical Care Center? German Heart Center Berlin, accessed on February 19, 2017 .
  5. ^ Steinbeis Transfer Institute Medical Psychology . Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  6. ↑ press conference. Psychological problems in patients with heart disease must be treated quickly. German Heart Center Berlin, August 26, 2011, accessed on February 19, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b Andrea Frey: Healthy mind and body. In: Berliner Zeitung. March 12, 2011, accessed February 19, 2017 .
  8. ↑ After the heart, the soul is healed. In: BZ. April 26, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  9. ↑ 'There was always an ear'. Mental health problems in heart patients need to be treated quickly. In: KrankenPflege-Journal. September 3, 2011, accessed February 19, 2017 . In the non-European area see z. B. The Academy of Medical Psychology in Nevada, Missouri, accessed December 23, 2015.
  10. ↑ Welcome to the STI Medical Psychology! Steinbeis Transfer Institute Medical Psychology, accessed on February 19, 2017 .
  11. ^ Research: Scientific projects in the functional area of ​​psychosomatics. (No longer available online.) German Heart Center Berlin, formerly the original ; Retrieved February 19, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dhzb.de  
  12. ↑ Scientific projects. Quality of life after a heart transplant. (No longer available online.) German Heart Center Berlin, formerly the original ; Retrieved February 19, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dhzb.de  
  13. ↑ Bernhard Borgeest: Operation healthy heart. In: Focus knowledge. April 13, 2019, accessed August 4, 2019 .
  14. ↑ a b Ralph Geisenhanslüke : No organ like any other. How psychologists help heart patients . In: GEO . No.  11 , 2019, pp. 162 ff .
  15. ^ German Heart Center Berlin: Study of Medical Psychology. (No longer available online.) In: archive-de-2012. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017 ; Retrieved on February 19, 2017 (The DHZB has changed its website, the quoted text is no longer available there). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archive-de-2012.com
  16. ↑ Admission requirements at the Berlin Institute. Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Description of the field of study. Steinbeis Transfer Institute Medical Psychology, accessed on February 19, 2017 . Masters course. Retrieved February 19, 2017 . and the institute team. Retrieved February 19, 2017 .
  18. ↑ In 1972 the Institute for Medical Psychology became the "first of its kind in Germany" . University of Giessen, accessed February 19, 2017 . set up.
  19. ↑ For example at the Universities of Gießen , Berlin ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bochum or Essen . Retrieved January 6, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / medpsych.charite.de
  20. ↑ Institute for Medical Psychology. Justus Liebig University of Giessen, accessed on February 19, 2017 .
  21. ↑ "Practice shock" already during your studies. A master's degree in clinical psychology, which is unique in Europe, is starting for the sixth time. German Heart Center Berlin, October 4, 2016, accessed on February 19, 2017 . See also Unique in Europe. Third DHZB master's degree in "Medical Psychology" successfully completed. (No longer available online.) German Heart Center Berlin, December 23, 2015, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 19, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Unique in Europe. 4. DHZB master’s course "Medical Psychology" successfully completed. (No longer available online.) German Heart Center Berlin, November 27, 2016, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 19, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

    @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dhzb.de  
    @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dhzb.de  
  22. ↑ Research Prize Psychotherapy in Medicine ( Memento from December 16, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on February 19, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Albert, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)