Symposium 2012 - Venice, Italy
28th July 2012
"Biopsychosocial Medicine: Multidimensional Parallel Diagnosis and Therapy in Obstetrics"
For further information please see www.bpsmed.net/symposium2012
Symposium 2011
"The Body-Mind-Unity Theory – Current Biopsychosocial Approaches to Research"
For further information please see www.bpsmed.net/symposium2011
- We are delighted to announce that the President of the International Society of Biopsychosocial Medicine, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Josef W. Egger, has been awarded the Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria -
- Press Release: pdf
The biopsychosocial model of illness – main features of a scientifically founded holistic understanding of illness.
The biopsychosocial model of illness is now regarded as the most significant theory to describe the relationship between body and mind, thus somewhat satisfactorily resolving the centuries old logical and empirical scientific problem of „psychosomatics“ on a systems theoretical (and semiotic) basis. According to this model of a biopsychosocial (holistic) understanding of illness there can be no psychosomatic illnesses – just as there are no non-psychosomatic illnesses. Illness sets in when the organism cannot sufficiently provide the autoregulative competency on various different levels of the human system in order to cope with disorders arising and relevant control cycles for the functional efficiency of human beings are overtaxed or fail. Due to the parallel interconnection of system levels it is not as significant on which level or area a disorder is generated or currently taking place, but which damage can be caused to the relevant system level or subordinate or superordinate systems. Illness and health are not defined as a condition in the biopsychosocial model, but as dynamic occurrence. Thus health must be „created“ during every second of life.
Egger JW. (2005). Das biopsychosoziale Krankheitsmodell - Grundzüge eines wissenschaftlich begründeten ganzheitlichen Verständnisses von Krankheit. Psychologische Medizin 16, 3-12.
