BioPsychoSocial Medicine

Psycho-Oncology in the Asia-Pacific area​​​​​​​
Edited by Kazuhiro Yoshiuchi

Psychosomatic dentistry
Edited by Akira Toyofuku

Recent advances in psychosomatic obstetrics & gynecology in Japan
Edited by Masakazu Terauchi

The meaning of behaviour medicine in the psychosomatic field
Edited by Mutsuhiro Nakao

Click here for more published series 

Special issues on alexisomia (shitsu-taikan-sho)

Special issue Editor: Takakazu Oka

Alexisomia, called shitsu-taikan-sho in Japanese, refers to the state of reduced awareness of bodily feelings or sensations. This condition was first proposed in 1979 by Dr. Yujiro Ikemi based on his clinical experiences of patients with stress-related, psychosomatic diseases. Earlier in 1973 Dr. Sifneos, PE had proposed “alexithymia” as a characteristic seen in patients with psychosomatic diseases. This led to Dr. Ikemi observing that these patients also had difficulty feeling bodily sensations, with this difficulty playing an important pathophysiological role in psychosomatic diseases. Recent advances in basic research on interoception and interoceptive awareness have highlighted the clinical importance of alexisomia, especially in the field of psychosomatic medicine. This special series will therefore be devoted to research and reviews on the significance of alexisomia in psychosomatic medicine practice.

[submit papers]

Deadline of submission is 31 October 2019. All submissions will be thoroughly peer-reviewed. Please refer to the Submission Guidelines section for detailed information on preparation of manuscripts, or contact us for questions. State on the cover letter that the submission is for the Special issue, and select relevant issue topic Alexisomia when making submission.

BPSM plans to publish following special issues and calls for papers to be included in these issues. 

[mHealth/uHealth in psychosomatic medicine/behavioral medicine]
A special issue featuring the application of mHealth/uHealth in the field of psychosomatic medicine or behavioral medicine. mobile health and ubiquitous health have been getting a lot of attention due to recent advances of internet of things (IoT), information and communication technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI). 
This special series will be devoted to research and review articles on the application of effects of mHealth/uHealth in the field of psychosomatic medicine or behavioral medicine. 

[Effects of board games on health education and promotion]
A PubMed search using “board game” identify many papers. Some of them focused on experiments conducted to clarify the cognitive mechanisms underpinning brain functioning during participation in board games, whereas others focused on the potential application of board games to domains such as disease prevention or health education.

Given the increasing reliance on information and communication technology (ICT) and on artificial intelligence (AI), we expect that the use of board games for maintaining and promoting mental and physical health will become more widespread. This special series will be devoted to researches and reviews concerning the “effects of board games on health education and promotion” for the purpose of advancing psychosomatic medicine.

[submit papers]

For both special issues, deadline of submission of papers is 31 March 2019. All submissions will be thoroughly peer-reviewed. Please refer to the Submission Guidelines section for detailed information on preparation of manuscripts, or contact us for questions. 

BioPsychoSocial Medicine has now been accepted for coverage in the below Clarivate products.  Contents published since Volume 9 (2015) are now indexed in; 

•    Social Sciences Citation Index
•    Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition
•    Current Contents/Social and Behavioural Sciences.

The Ikemi Award 

To stimulate research in psychosomatic medicine and to enhance the submission of high quality manuscripts, BioPsychoSocial Medicine annually sponsor the "The Ikemi Award", which is presented to the first author of the best article published in the journal nominated by the award selection committee every year. 

The 2017 Ikemi Award was presented to Dr. Hideaki Hasuo of Kansai Medical University (Japan) for his article entitled " Relationship between Alexithymia and latent trigger points in the upper Trapezius" . 

Award details and list of previous winners can be found here.