Biopsychosocial Medicine: An integrated approach to understanding illness - Tapa dura

Perhaps the surprising thing is that a book published in 2005 called Biopsychosocial Medicine should contain so much controversy. Fortunately, this is a stimulating collection by 13 well-informed and lucid authors who attended a Novartis Foundation symposium; it allows the privilege of being a fly on the wall at what must have been a superb meeting. For those in a hurry, or those who simply like elegant medical writing and thinking, Simon Wessley's foreword provides, with wit, humour, and panache, as good an overview as one will find. (The Lancet, Vol 365)

To what extent do social factors such as stress cause physical diseases? How do physical and social factors contribute to the healing process? 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 wellbeing are key factors in their illness and recovery, along with their thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Biopsychosocial Medicine 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 book 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. Controversial and challenging, Biopsychosocial Medicine will be essential reading for all those who feel the biomedical model is failing them and their patients. It will enable readers to understand the model and how it can be implemented, in order to enhance their confidence and success as health professionals.