[Death anxiety and its importance for psychiatry].

Inner dealing with the question of death as well as death anxiety accompany human beings from the beginning, which is reflected by the different philosophical and religious positions. It is obvious that work on this issue is sparse in the field of psychiatric disorders. Due to the few literatures it can however be assumed that death anxiety plays a greater role within the changed thoughts and feelings of psychiatric patients, whose intensity we probably determine and assess in non-sufficient manner yet. The terms are defined and the problematic of ego destruction in patients with schizophrenia as expression of death anxiety is specifically discussed. Furthermore, the few studies about death anxiety in psychiatric disorders, its psychodynamics and approaches of the so-called terror management theory are presented besides other aspects. The current state of literature is presented, points out the importance of this issue for our field and wants to initiate more research on this topic. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.