Revisão crítica das publicações científicas dos últimos cinco anos visando identificar os principais temas vinculados à psicossomática e à somatização, com o propósito de analisar o significado das tendências manifestadas por esses temas e sua distribuição. Revisão sistemática dos resumos publicados nos bancos de dados MEDLINE, LILACS e SciELO, de 2004 a 2008, utilizando o MeSH, vocabulário estruturado proposto pela National Library of Medicine, e estabelecendo 38 categorias de conteúdo para a classificação dos artigos. Análise estatística do principal componente foi realizada para indicar a ordem estruturante dos temas.Encontramos uma expressiva predominância do uso do termo "somatização", particularmente no MEDLINE, com uma acentuada tendência de substituir "psicossomática" e um predomínio da psiquiatria sobre as outras especialidades ou abordagens. Muitas perspectivas distintas sobre os fenômenos psicossomáticos estão se tornando progressivamente menos significativas, com uma concentração dos temas de pesquisa em apenas quatro grandes agrupamentos de categorias: 1) ‘psiquiatria + psicossomática’; 2) ‘psiquiatria - psicossomática’; 3) ‘especialidades médicas + tratamento - subjetividade + escalas + psicossomática -psiquiatria’ and 4) ‘psiquiatria × especialidades médicas + subjetividade + psicossomática + psiquiatria × psicossomática - psiquiatria’.Demonstramos que a tendência subjacente da pesquisa contemporânea é a de erradicar o prefixo "psico" dos estudos psicossomáticos, com a expressão remanescente "somatização" tornando-se cada vez mais indicativa de um ponto de vista estritamente biológico, fisiológico e positivista.

To critically review scientific publications from the last five years to identify the main themes linked to psychosomatics and somatization with the purpose of analyzing the meaning of tendencies manifested by these themes and their distribution. A systematic review of abstracts linked to the MEDLINE, LILACS and SciELO databases from 2004 to 2008, using MeSH, the structured vocabulary proposed by the National Library of Medicine, to create 38 content categories in order to classify the papers. Principal component statistical analysis was performed to indicate the structuring order of the themes. We found an expressive dominance of the use of the term ‘somatization’, particularly in MEDLINE, with an accentuated tendency to substitute ‘psychosomatics’ and an overall predominance of psychiatry over other specialties or approaches. Many different perspectives on psychosomatic phenomena are progressively becoming less significant with a concentration of research themes in only four large clusters of categories: 1) ‘psychiatry + psychosomatics’; 2) ‘psychiatry - psychosomatics’; 3) ‘medical specialties + treatment - subjectivity + scales + psychosomatics - psychiatry’ and 4) ‘psychiatry × medical specialties + subjectivity + psychosomatics + psychiatry × psychosomatics - psychiatry’. We demonstrate that the underlying tendency of present-day research is to eradicate the prefix ‘psycho’ from psychosomatic studies, with the remaining expression ‘somatization’ becoming more and more indicative of a strictly biological, physiological and positivistic viewpoint.

Hereditary hemochromatosis is a disorder of iron metabolism characterized by increased iron intake and progressive storage and is related to mutations in the HFE gene. Interactions between thalassemia and hemochromatosis may further increase iron overload. The ethnic background of the Brazilian population is heterogeneous and studies analyzing the simultaneous presence of HFE and thalassemia-related mutations have not been carried out. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of the H63D, S65C and C282Y mutations in the HFE gene among 102 individuals with alpha-thalassemia and 168 beta-thalassemia heterozygotes and to compare them with 173 control individuals without hemoglobinopathies. The allelic frequencies found in these three groups were 0.98, 2.38, and 0.29% for the C282Y mutation, 13.72, 13.70, and 9.54% for the H63D mutation, and 0, 0.60, and 0.87% for the S65C mutation, respectively. The chi-square test for multiple independent individuals indicated a significant difference among groups for the C282Y mutation, which was shown to be significant between the beta-thalassemia heterozygote and the control group by the Fisher exact test (P value = 0.009). The higher frequency of inheritance of the C282Y mutation in the HFE gene among beta-thalassemic patients may contribute to worsen the clinical picture of these individuals. In view of the characteristics of the Brazilian population, the present results emphasize the need to screen for HFE mutations in beta-thalassemia carriers.