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Cited by 276Medicine, History, and PhilosophyHealth, psychology, and well-beingHealth, Medicine and Society

The New Old (and Old New) Medical Model: Four Decades Navigating the Biomedical and Psychosocial Understandings of Health and Illness

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Farre, Albert, Rapley, Tim·2017·Healthcare
DOI 10.3390/healthcare5040088PMC PMC5746722
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Abstract

The importance of how disease and illness are conceptualised lies in the fact that such definition is paramount to understand the boundaries and scope of responsibility associated with medical work. In this paper, we aim to provide an overview of the interplay of these understandings in shaping the nature of medical work, philosophically, and in practice. We first discuss the emergence of the biopsychosocial model as an attempt to both challenge and broaden the traditional biomedical model. Then, we outline the main criticisms associated with the biopsychosocial model and note a range of contributions addressing the shortcomings of the model as initially formulated. Despite recurrent criticisms and uneven uptake, the biopsychosocial model has gone on to influence core aspects of medical practice, education, and research across many areas of medicine. One of these areas is adolescent medicine, which provides a particularly good exemplar to examine the contemporary challenges associated with the practical application of the biopsychosocial model. We conclude that a more optimal use of existing bodies of evidence, bringing together evidence-based methodological advances of the biopsychosocial model and existing evidence on the psychosocial needs associated with specific conditions/populations, can help to bridge the gap between philosophy and practice.

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  • Disease states are fundamentally defined by their ability to cause illness, intended as both an objective and subjective human experience of ill health, secondary to ongoing alterations in the functioning of organs and tissues.

    “Disease states are fundamentally defined by their ability to cause illness, intended as both an objective and subjective human experience of ill health, secondary to ongoing alterations in the functioning of organs and tissues.”

    From Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity (2025) · cites this paper as [22]

    The Introduction distinguishes disease from illness rather than defining disease by its ability to cause illness. It explicitly says a person can have disease without illness, or experience illness without objectively verifiable disease; illness is therefore not necessarily secondary to changes in organs and tissues. (LLM, conf=0.90)

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Authors
Farre, A., & Rapley, T.
Affiliations
  • Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
  • Northumbria University (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Healthcare
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2017-11-18
Volume
5
Issue
4
Pages
88
ISSN
2227-9032 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/healthcare5040088
PMC
PMC5746722
OpenAlex
W2768857039
Cited by
276
References
6
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 53 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2
FWCI
2.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Healthcare (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
National Institute for Health and Care Research
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, psychology, and well-being
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, Medicine and Society
Keywords
biopsychosocial model, biomedical model, medical model of illness, medical education, medical research, adolescent medicine, psychosocial needs, philosophy of medicine, evidence-based medicine

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