Medical model

Medical model is the term coined by psychiatrist R. D. Laing in his The Politics of the Family and Other Essays (1971), for the "set of procedures in which all doctors are trained". It includes complaint, history, physical examination, ancillary tests if needed, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis with and without treatment. The medical model embodies basic assumptions about medicine that drive research and theorizing about physical or psychological difficulties on a basis of causation and remediation. It can be contrasted with other models that make different basic assumptions. Examples include holistic model of the alternative health movement and the social model of the disability rights movement, as well as to biopsychosocial and recovery models of mental disorders. For example, Gregory Bateson's double bind theory of schizophrenia focuses on environmental rather than medical causes. These models are not mutually exclusive. A model is not a statement of absolute reality or a belief system but a tool for helping patients. Thus, utility is the main criterion, and the utility of a model depends on context. In psychology, the term medical model refers to the assumption that psychopathology is the result of one's biology, that is to say, a physical/organic problem in brain structures, neurotransmitters, genetics, the endocrine system, etc., as with traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, or Down's syndrome. The medical model is useful in these situations as a guide for diagnosis, prognosis, and research. However, for most mental disorders, exclusive reliance on the medical model leads to an incomplete understanding, and, frequently, to incomplete or ineffective treatment interventions. The current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), addresses this point in part, stating, However, in the absence of clear biological markers or clinically useful measurements of severity for many mental disorders, it has not been possible to completely separate normal and pathological symptom expressions contained in diagnostic criteria.