Medical Model - Other Uses

Other Uses

Medical Model is a term in psychology which is the view that abnormal behavior is the result of physical problems and should be treated medically.

There is no one agreed-upon definition of the medical model (MM). Nevertheless, a basic general definition of the MM in psychiatry might go like this: “The MM of psychiatry views mental illness as a disease or disease-like condition that can and should be treated through somatic (physical) means, by medical personnel, primarily physicians (that is, psychiatrists)”.

The MM attributes mental illness behavior to physiological, biochemical, and/or genetic causes and attempts to treat it primarily through physically based (somatic) procedures particularly drugs. The mentally ill person within the MM is regarded in the same manner as anyone with a physical illness. Psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia and the affective (mood) disorders, are viewed as similar to physical diseases such as diabetes, epilepsy, and high blood pressure. The primary treatment providers for individuals suffering from mental illness, according to the MM, should be physicians (primarily psychiatrists), although other treatment personnel (such as nurses, psychologists, and social workers) may also be involved in treating the mentally ill person, although in a lesser position of importance. According to the MM, the psychiatrist should be the primary decision maker, the overall coordinator of care, and is the one who should take primary responsibility for treatment of “the patient”.

The rise of modern scientific medicine during the 19th century has a great impact on the development of the medical model (MM). Especially important here was the development of the “germ theory” of disease by European medical researchers such as Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the physical causes of a variety of diseases were uncovered, which in turn, led to the development of effective forms of treatment. While much of these medical successes were in the area of physical illness, advances also occurred in the area of “mental” illness as well. For example, in the late 19th century, approximately 20% of all persons hospitalized in mental institutions were actually suffering from a physical disease -- “general paresis” (advanced syphilis of the brain) – caused by microorganisms called “spirochetes”. As more effective treatments for general paresis began to be developed as a result of this discovery, the rates of mental hospitalization due to the disease greatly decreased. If bacteria caused syphilitic mental illness, many researchers of the time reasoned, maybe a “germ” also was responsible for other forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia (which was termed “dementia praecox” at the time). Interest in the MM decreased in psychiatry, however, during the 1st half of the 20th century due to a lack of medical advances in treating mental illness. During this time, medical approaches to mental illness were abandoned and psychoanalysis became a major influence in psychiatry in the U.S. Beginning in the 1950s and 60s, however, the development of effective medications in the treatment of some mental illnesses (such as schizophrenia and depression) sparked renewed interest in the MM. Today the MM is the predominant way of thinking about mental illness among psychiatrists as well as many other mental health professionals.