The Biopsychosocial Model Revised for Mental Health

Mental health and mental disorders are complex phenomena involving specific brain functions, the area of human relationships, and several individual and social psychological domains. Although the etiopathogenesis of mental disorders is still not fully understood, paradigms that conceptualize mental disorders only as responses to genes or to adverse environmental situations or to problematic interpersonal relationships seem to be too simplistic. Establishing the superiority of a model over another is probably a useless exercise, considering that mental disorders are complex disorders that reflect the complex interplay between a complex organ (i.e., the brain) and an even more complex function, that is that of human relationships. The biopsychosocial model, which encompasses social, biological, and personal factors, seems the best model for explaining the etiopathogenesis of mental disorders. This model, which is well recognized in other branches of medicine—such as cancer—is currently living a renaissance in mental health research and practice.