The biopsychosocial model is an approach to medicine which considers factors outside the biological process of illness when trying to understand health and disease. In this approach, a person's social context and psychological wellbeing are key factors in their illness and recovery, along with their thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Biopsychosocial Medicine examines the concept and the utility of this approach, taking the examples of arthritis, cancer,diabetes, lower back pain, irritable bowel syndrome and depression to show how the model can be used in practice. It shows how effective it can be and provides solutions for implementing it in medical practice in all specialties.

• 1: Edward Shorter: The history of the biopsychosocial approach in medicine: before and after Engel


• 2: Helge Malmgren: The theoretical basis of the biopsychosocial model


• 3: Michael Marmot: Remediable or preventable social factors in the aetiology and prognosis of medical disorders


• 4: Andrew Steptoe: Remediable or preventable psychological factors in the aetiology and prognosis of medical disorders


• 5: George Davey Smith: The biopsychosocial approach: a note of caution


• 6: Stafford Lightman: Can neurobiology explain the relationship between stress and disease?


• 7: Michael Von Korff: Fear and depression as remediable causes of disability in common medical conditions in primary care


• 8: Jos Kleijnen: How important is the biopsychosocial approach? Some examples from research


• 9: Adrian Furnham: Complementary and alternative medicine: shopping for health in post-modern times


• 10: Doug Drossman: A case of irritable bowel syndrome that illustrates the biopsychosocial model of illness


• 11: Francis Creed: Are the patient-centred and biopsychosocial approaches compatible?


• 12: Kate Lorig: What are the barriers to health-care systems using a biopsychosocial approach, and how might they be overcome?


• 13: Final discussion: how to overcome the barriers


• 14: Peter White: Beyond the biomedical to the biopsychosocial: integrated medicine