Biopsychosocial Approach to Mental Health

The biopsychosocial model emphasizes the unified and interactive roles of biological, psychological, and social factors in understanding illness origins and effects on individual recovery and health. This framework emerged mainly as a counter to the narrow focus of the medical model on illness, which prioritizes biological aspects and individual pathology in illness causation while neglecting the intricate interactions and mutual influences of psychological and external socio-cultural elements with internal biological factors. The current chapter outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the Biopsychosocial Model and its conceptual evolution in mental health. It further discusses the role of the biopsychosocial framework in conceptualizing mental disorders and formulating practical strategies that can be implemented in clinical assessment, patient care, service delivery, research, and policymaking. It also highlights the advantages of the biopsychosocial approach in integrating humanistic perspectives in service delivery, thereby fostering therapeutic relationships that consider the lived experience of patients and acknowledge their role in the treatment process. Furthermore, the chapter also covers the limitations of the Biopsychosocial Model in its current form and its implications in mental health care and research.