Definition
The view that illness and health can be best understood as a result of the interaction between physiological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
Description
The biopsychosocial model, originally advanced by George L. Engel (1977), views disease and health as the product of physiological, psychological, and sociocultural variables. This viewpoint stands in contrast to the biomedical model, in which disease is viewed in terms of deviation from normal biological functioning, and where the experience and etiology of illness are understood solely in terms of biological factors, such as genetic predispositions or physiological dysfunctions. Engel argued that this model was too narrowly focused, and that a greater emphasis needed to be placed on the role of psychosocial factors.
The idea that psychological and sociocultural factors could have an influence upon illness had already been recognized (in the field of psychosomatic medicine, for example). For example, factors such...
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References and Further Readings
Borrell-Carrio, F., Suchman, A. L., & Epstein, R. M. (2004). The biopsychosocial model 25 years later: Principles, practice, and scientific inquiry. Annals of Family Medicine, 2(6), 576–582.
Engel, G. L. (1977). The need for a new medical model: A challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196(4286), 129–136.
Quill, T. E., Frankel, R. M., & McDaniel, S. H. (Eds.). (2004). The biopsychosocial approach: Past, present and future. Rochester: University of Rochester Press.
White, P. (Ed.). (2005). Biopsychosocial medicine: An integrated approach to understanding illness. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Miles, E. (2020). Biopsychosocial Model. In: Gellman, M.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_1095
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_1095
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