The notion of biopsychosocial combines the biological, the psychological and the sociological.
Biopsychosocial is a concept that is not part of the dictionary prepared by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ). However, we can break the term down into its constituent units to understand precisely what it refers to.
The prefix “bio” refers to life ; “psycho” is linked to psychology (the activity of the mind or matters of the soul); “Social” , finally, is that linked to society (the community of individuals who share a culture and who interact with each other). The notion of biopsychosocial, therefore, integrates biological, psychological and social issues .
The human being, a biopsychosocial being
It is often said that human beings are biopsychosocial. Their potential is determined by their biological (physical) characteristics, but at the same time their actions are influenced by psychological aspects (such as desires, motivations and inhibitions) and by the social environment (the pressure exerted by other people, legal conditions, etc. ). These three aspects (bio, psycho and social) cannot be separated, but rather constitute a whole. Man's behavior, in fact, constitutes a biopsychosocial unit .
We speak of the biopsychosocial model with reference to the approach that addresses people's health through the integration of biological, psychological and social factors. This model understands that man's well-being depends on the three dimensions: it is not enough for the individual to be physically healthy.
Interaction between medicine, psychology and sociology
Medicine , psychology and sociology come together in the biopsychosocial model, which considers the connection between the body, mind and context for the treatment of diseases, disorders and disabilities.
This model is opposed to the traditional reductionist model , according to which only the biological level matters to explain a health disorder, taking into account the phenomena possible to appreciate through the senses and quantify, such as the variation of a value. or an abnormal change in the dimensions of a tissue, all deviations from the normal function of the organism.
The biopsychosocial model emerged in the field of psychiatry.
It should be noted that the term biopsychosocial was coined by the American psychiatrist George Libman Engel in 1977, when he was looking for a new medical model to confront the biomedical model, until then dominant in industrialized society . Despite the natural rejection that human beings have towards change, it is important to note that Engel's proposal was well accepted by certain groups that wanted to expand the horizons of medicine with the incorporation of compassion and empathy.
Characteristics of the biopsychosocial model
Firstly, the psychosocial model sought to leave behind the closed "cause-effect" scheme, according to which the emotional plane and the social context did not influence the healing process or the treatment of an illness or disability. On the other hand, it was also a step towards a reality in which doctors would begin to take into account the patient's opinion before making their decisions; In other words, the patient went from being "object" to "subject."
Engel was convinced that the biological aspects of the human being depended on a very broad series of aspects, which included biological, social and psychological aspects. Although his model is very easy to understand today, at that time the concept of ecology or chaos theory had not yet emerged, among other notions that we consider basic of universal knowledge.
The American psychiatrist's criticism of the biomedical current was not based on the idea that it had not contributed important advances to medicine, but arose when he understood that, for example, all biochemical alterations do not lead to the appearance of a disease and that the The power of the placebo effect in the context of a healing process is truly considerable.