Posts in this category concern some aspect of models of illness, and frameworks used with rehabilitation. The biopsychosocial model and the biomedical model will be predominant, but other related models may be included.
First published: November 24, 2025 Last updated: November 23, 2025 In What is a diagnosis? Part 1, I explained that diagnoses can generally be divided into biomedical diagnoses supported by observable features that can be independently verified, and syndromic diagnoses based on specific collections of symptoms without independent observable features. Neither category has a complete, […]
What is a diagnosis? Part 2 Read More »
First published: November 14, 2025 Last updated: November 14, 2025 How can we tell when something is wrong with us? In a popular post (6,800 views over four years), Disease, illness, sickness, and disability, I discuss different ideas related to being unwell. I did not explain how someone knows they are unwell. The answer might
Biopsychosocial disequilibrium Read More »
First published: November 6, 2025 Last updated: November 6, 2025 In January 1781, The London Medical Journal published a 19-page review of a book written by Dr Tiffot, a member of the Société Royale de Londres, entitled Traité des Nerfs et de leurs Maladies. (Treatise on the nerves and their maladies). Since then, malady has
First published: October 3, 2025 Last updated: 3 October 2025 This post explains the framework used in the biopsychosocial model. While the framework is a powerful analytical tool, a description can sometimes make it seem abstract and disconnected from real life. I introduce the building blocks one by one, asking you to imagine real-life situations.
Basic Biopsychosocial Framework. Read More »
First published: September 25, 2025 Last updated: 25 September 2025 The medical model and biomedical healthcare are two of many terms used to describe the traditional and culturally dominant approach to illness and health. It underpins the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of health, introduced in 1948: a “state of complete physical, mental, and social
Biopsychosocial healthcare Read More »
First published: April 6, 2024 Last updated: November 23, 2025 In healthcare, a diagnosis is a label assigned to a health condition. The Oxford English Dictionary defines diagnosis as: “the identification of the nature of an illness or other problem by examination of the symptoms,” and the Cambridge Dictionary as: “a judgment about what a
What is a diagnosis? Part 1 Read More »
First published: October 21, 2023 Last updated: March 22, 2025 Personal factors (WHO ICF) are an invalid construct. They cannot exist separate from the person as independent influential factors. The person has characteristics, which vary according to the person’s role at the time. The World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Impairment, Disability and Handicap, published
Personal factors in rehabilitation Read More »
First published: October 16, 2023 Last updated: October 17, 2025 What theory underlies the delivery of healthcare? The design of hospitals, services, policies, and almost every other aspect of healthcare in the UK occurs without reference to any theories. Yet, as Priscilla Alderson stressed in 1998, theories are crucial: “… theories are at the heart
The biopsychosocial model of illness was born in 1977, with a reasonably well-documented gestation. Its growth and development are easily tracked, showing changes and improvements, and anyone can quickly discover the model. In contrast, the medical model, better termed the biomedical model, has been gestating and growing since about 1500, when the Scientific Revolution started.
In 1978, I submitted my first paper to the British Medical Journal. It concerned what we now refer to as functional disorders, the phenomenon of illness with no identified disease causing it. I have been interested since. A recent editorial by an Oxford colleague, Anton Pick, discussing whether patients with Long Covid had a functional
Is Long Covid a functional disorder? Read More »
Enter your email address to receive an email each time a new blog post is published.
Then press the black ‘Subscribe’ button.