Compare And Contrast The Biomedical Model Vs Biopsychosocial Model

The Biomedical Model, the Biopsychosocial Model, using evidence from the lectures, seminars and additional reading, which is the better model of health and why” For this you will need to write about the two different models of health then choose a topic, condition or illness to demonstrate which model would be better

Introduction

This essay will first look at two models of health, the biomedical model and the biopsychological model. Both models will then be applied in relation substance misuse more specifically, heroin addiction and how both models contribute to effectively treating a service user.

This should then demonstrate which model of health would be more beneficial to apply when supporting a person with a substance misuse issue.

This natural response is only intended to be for brief periods. So therefore, if a person is experiencing chronic stress, the increased release of adrenaline has implications on the physical health of the person in numerous different ways, such as fatigue, high blood pressure, headaches and so forth. This results in a weakening of the immune system so the person become more susceptible to physical infirmities. (Ader, R. & Cohen, N.

This does not suggest that a person’s genes will cause heroin addiction or use, only that once a person has started to use heroin their genomic characteristics may cause them to be much more vulnerable to becoming addicted. After repeated use of heroin physical changes to nerve cells in the brain are apparent. In contrast there is no single causation factor identified for weather or not a person will become addicted to drugs (Fowler et al., 2007).

“Drugs can alter important brain areas that are necessary for life-sustaining functions and can drive the compulsive drug abuse that marks addiction” (Volkow, 2009). A core concept of the biomedical medical model is that drug addiction is a brain disease that manifests over time after the voluntary use of heroin, this results in modifying brain mechanisms that control mood, perception and emotional states causing drug seeking behaviours that interfere with the functioning of the individual (Leshner, 1999). Through medical advances brain imaging studies support physical changes in areas of the brain that are critical to judgment, decision making, and behaviour control (Fowler et al.,