The Biomedical Model

Health Psychology arose as an answer to the failure of the biomedical model. The biomedical model treats illness as the sole effect of physiological, and biochemical modes of disease (Sanderson et al, pg. 14, 2012). By the biomedical model, studies employing the use of placebos should always show a clear distinction in results. This argument, however, has been shown to fall apart time after time. It has failed to explain why patients who receive more visitors tend to be discharged earlier, as well as why a clinical trial participant might have a better outcome if they have a more positive expectation of the treatment (Sanderson et al, pg. 14, 2012). The biopsychosocial model on the other hand, takes into account all of the components of the
biomedical model and includes the social, cultural and psychological aspects to present a more holistic view of illness.