The medical model and its application in mental health

Abstract

This article provides a conceptual overview of the medical model and its application to psychiatry, understanding the medical model in psychiatry as a biopsychosocial model. The article discusses basic concepts relevant to the medical model (illness, disease, disorder, condition, etc.), the nature of medical knowledge and diagnostic construct, medical classifications in psychiatry, and the medical model within multidisciplinary practice. Salient criticisms of the medical model are discussed and addressed at relevant points. It is recognized that concepts such as disease and illness lack uncontested definitions and are not free from value judgements even in general medicine. Diagnostic constructs used in psychiatry are often descriptive heterogenous categories which can nonetheless offer clinical utility. The medical model co-exists with non-medical approaches and perspectives, and psychiatrists work in an interdisciplinary context with other models and professionals. Criticism of the medical model in psychiatry often fail to recognize the continuities between psychiatry and the rest of medicine, and the persistence of these controversies may be a result of fundamental disagreement over values.

Keywords:

• Psychiatry
• philosophy of mental health
• nosology
• clinical psychology
• clinical heuristics
• critical psychiatry

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Awais Aftab for his comments and assistance in the preparation of this article.

Disclosure statement

Dr Huda has written a book defending the use of the medical model in mental health. No other potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).