Psychosomatic medicine, consultation-liaison psychiatry, and integrated care in Taiwan: Snapshot 2026.

This article provides an overview of psychosomatic medicine in Taiwan, addressing the healthcare system, clinical practice, research development, and sociocultural context. Taiwan's National Health Insurance system offers highly accessible and low-cost care, allowing patients to seek treatment freely across medical institutions, though this also results in heavy workloads for physicians. Psychosomatic medicine in Taiwan is generally regarded as part of psychiatry rather than an independent specialty, and its clinical scope includes persistent physical symptoms, sleep and eating disorders, and other disorders without marked reality disturbance. Culturally, many Taiwanese describe symptoms within the psychosomatic field as "neurasthenia" or "autonomic dysregulation," reflecting a gap between professional and lay concepts and contributing to strong public interest in physiological measures such as heart rate variability. Taiwan has produced notable research on persistent physical symptoms, autonomic nervous system, biofeedback and neurofeedback, etc. Moving forward, professionals in Taiwan aim to strengthen cross-specialty collaboration, integrate clinical and research efforts, and expand international networks to develop psychosomatic care models that are both culturally grounded and evidence-based.