Biopsychosocial Medicine: An integrated approach to understanding illness

Biopsychosocial Medicine: An integrated approach to understanding illness

Edited by Peter White

Abstract

The biopsychosocial model is an approach to medicine which stresses the importance of a holistic approach. It considers factors outside the biological process of illness when trying to understand health and disease. In this approach, a person’s social context and psychological well-being are key factors in their illness and recovery, along with their thoughts, beliefs and emotions. This title examines the concept and the utility of this approach from its history to its application, and from its philosophical underpinnings to the barriers to its implementation. It is severely critical of the failure of modern medicine to treat the patient not the disease, and its neglect of psychological and social factors in the treatment of the ill. Focusing on chronic disabling ill health, this title takes the examples of arthritis, cancer, diabetes, lower back pain, irritable bowel syndrome and depression to show how the biopsychosocial model can be used in practice. It questions why, even when the biopsychosocial approach has been proved to be more effective than traditional methods in overcoming these disorders, is not more routinely used, and how barriers to its implementation can be overcome.

Keywords: medicine, disease, social context, illness, recovery, ill health, biopsychosocial model

Bibliographic Information

Publisher:: Oxford University Press

Print Publication Date:: Apr 2005

Print ISBN-13:: 9780198530343

Published online:: Aug 2015

DOI:: 10.1093/med:psych/9780198530343.001.0001

Author

Peter White, editor Department of Psychological Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK

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Front Matter
1 The history of the biopsychosocial approach in medicine: before and after EngelEdward Shorter
2 The theoretical basis of the biopsychosocial modelHelge Malmgren
3 Remediable or preventable social factors in the aetiology and prognosis of medical disordersMichael Marmot
4 Remediable or preventable psychological factors in the aetiology and prognosis of medical disordersAndrew Steptoe
5 The biopsychosocial approach: a note of cautionGeorge Davey Smith
6 Can neurobiology explain the relationship between stress and disease?Stafford Lightman
7 Fear and depression as remediable causes of disability in common medical conditions in primary careMichael Von Korff
8 How important is the biopsychosocial approach?: Some examples from researchJos Kleijnen
9 Complementary and alternative medicine: shopping for health in post-modern times Adrian Furnham
10 A case of irritable bowel syndrome that illustrates the biopsychosocial model of illness Doug Drossman
11 Are the patient-centred and biopsychosocial approaches compatible? Francis Creed
12 What are the barriers to healthcare systems using a biopsychosocial approach and how might they be overcome?Kate Lorig
13 Final discussion: how to overcome the barriers
14 Beyond the biomedical to the biopsychosocial: integrated medicinePeter White
End Matter
- Index

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date: 11 July 2020

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Biopsychosocial Medicine: An integrated approach to understanding illness

Edited by Peter White

Abstract

Bibliographic Information

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