Biomedical model of health

Biomedical model of health refers to a concept in the medical industry that states that all diseases have a specific physical cause. This could be an infection, a problem on a cellular level, an injury, or some other problem. Under this model, the physician's job is to identify the specific cause and treat it, eliminating or minimizing the disease. This model sees diseases as purely physical in nature and does not allow for any psychological or social factors or causes. It treats the disease or illness exclusively from a biological perspective and seeks to restore health by changing something about the physical body. This can be in the form of surgery, a medication, radiation, or some other attempt to alter the human body. This approach was the norm through much of the twentieth century, but in the twenty-first century is being replaced by a biopsychosocial approach to treating illnesses.

Background

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the understanding of the function of the human body, the practice of medicine, and the treatment of disease all took huge leaps forward. People began to understand how the systems in the body worked and how illnesses and injuries could alter those workings to the detriment of a person and their health. Medical practitioners also discovered medicines and other treatments that could restore health or at least minimize the effects of an illness or injury.

This era was also a time when many people died of illnesses that were in fact caused by infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses. Diseases such as influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and various water and sanitation-related diseases that cause life-threatening attacks of diarrhea claimed many lives. As physicians learned how to combat the bacteria and viruses that caused these illnesses through techniques such as improved hygiene and sanitation, better diet, and medications, people were restored to health. This led physicians to view health as purely the absence of any physical illness or pain and to the idea that if a physician could simply find the way to eliminate the bacteria, virus, or other pathogen causing the illness, the patient would be healthy. This way of thinking remained fairly common until the last part of the twentieth century.

Overview

Under the biological model of health, all illnesses and diseases are caused exclusively by bacteria, viruses, chemical imbalances, genetic problems, or some other factor that acts on the human body. These conditions are seen as outside the control of the individual person; therefore, the person is seen as a victim of any and every illness from which they might suffer. Personal responsibility is not a factor for any illness or condition in this model.

Individuals are also seen as incapable of doing anything to alter or improve their health; all cures must come from the medical profession in the form of medications, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or some other physical alteration of biological systems. This can also be achieved in a preventive manner through vaccination. This model sees health in absolute terms; a person is either healthy or ill, with no middle ground for states such as becoming ill or recovering from an illness.

The biological model does not allow for the idea that the physical practices of an individual, such as diet, exercise, work hazards, etc., have any impact on the person's physical health. It also does not allow for the concept that the mind plays a role in physical health. While a person may become sad or depressed because of a physical malady, the model does not hold that a person's mind has any impact on physical health. The mind and the body are seen as two distinct aspects of the individual, and a person's psychological state does not affect the physical body.

Belief in this model began to fade early in the twentieth century when Austrian-born psychologist Sigmund Freud began to explore mental health issues. Freud diagnosed what he called hysterical paralysis, or a person's inability to move one or more limbs even though nothing is physically wrong with them. People with an interest in medicine and the mind had long noted the presence of illnesses described as hysterics, after the Greek word hystera, or "uterus," which they believed was the origin of these conditions. Freud engaged in significant study and theorizing about these conditions.

Freud and others noted the physical effects manifested by soldiers who experienced emotional trauma during World War I, including blindness and paralysis with no physical causes. These conditions, known as psychosomatic illnesses, were believed to be caused by repressed memories. However, this concept was not part of the biomedical model of health.

The biomedical model also excluded another concept that rose out of the twentieth century, behavioral health. This is the idea that people who are healthy can remain healthy by adopting or avoiding certain behaviors. For instance, eating a healthy diet, exercising, and avoiding exposure to chemicals known to have a detrimental effect on health can help prevent many illnesses. In some cases, a better diet and exercise can help minimize or even cure certain illnesses. However, this is contrary to the biomedical model, which states that people can neither prevent nor treat illnesses through nonmedical means.

By the 1970s, the combined effect of new developments—the diagnosis of increasing numbers of conditions with psychological origins and the growing idea that how a person treats the body can affect its health—gained traction to generate a new way of thinking about illness and health. The biomedical model began to lose popularity in favor of the biopsychosocial model. As the name implies, this model includes not only the biological factors that affect a person's health, but also the psychological and social factors that impact it.

The biopsychosocial model for health was developed by American psychiatrists George Engel and John Romano in the latter part of the 1970s. Unlike the biomedical model, the biopsychosocial model takes into consideration the person's psychological state and the conditions of their social structure and their biological conditions in not only diagnosing their illness but also in its treatment. This allows a broader context for understanding, treating, and preventing illnesses than is allowed by the biomedical model. The biopsychosocial model remained widely used in the early twenty-first century.

Bibliography

"Biomedical vs. Biopsychosocial Models." Sovereign Health California,www.sovcal.com/mental-health/biomedical-vs-biopsychosocial-models/. Accessed 8 May 2017.

"The Biopsychosocial Approach." Rochester University, www.urmc.rochester.edu/medialibraries/urmcmedia/education/md/documents/biopsychosocial-model-approach.pdf.Accessed 8 May 2017.

Engebretsen, Karin Mohn. "Suffering without a Medical Diagnosis: A Critical View on the Biomedical Attitudes towards Persons Suffering from Burnout and the Implications for Medical Care." Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, vol. 24, 2018, pp. 1150–157.

Henriques, Gregg. "The Biopsychosocial Model and Its Limitations." Psychology Today,30 Oct. 2015, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201510/the-biopsychosocial-model-and-its-limitations. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Horrill, Tara, et al. "Understanding Access to Healthcare among Indigenous Peoples: A Comparative Analysis of Biomedical and Postcolonial Perspectives." Nursing Inquiry, 25 Mar. 2018, doi:10.1111/nin.12237. Accessed 20 Feb. 2019.

Hussung, Tricia. "Comparing the Biomedical and Psychotherapeutic Models of Mental Illness Treatment." King University, online.king.edu/psychology/comparing-biomedical-and-psychotherapeutic-models-of-mental-illness-treatment/. Accessed 8 May 2017.

"An Introduction to Health Psychology." McGraw Hill Education,www.mheducation.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335214878.pdf. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Marschall, Amy. "Understanding the Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Wellness." Reviewed by Steven Gans. Verywell Mind, www.verywellmind.com/understanding-the-biopsychosocial-model-7549226. Accessed 5 Sept. 2024.

"Psychosomatic Medicine: The Puzzling Leap." US National Library of Health,www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/emotions/psychosomatic.html. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Wade, Derick T. and Peter W. Halligan. "Do Biomedical Models of Illness Make for Good Health Care Systems?" BMJ,11 Dec. 2004, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC535463/. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Zaman, Shahid H. "What Is the Biomedical Model?" BMJ,19 April 2002, www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/28/what-biomedical-model. Accessed 8 Ma7 2017.