Addiction: What in the World is a Biopsychosocial Disease?

One of the fascinating things about studying addiction is that nobody can agree on a definition.

The biopsychosocial model of looking at addiction is an attempt to broaden the older, traditional view of addiction as strictly a medical problem. It was thought that by forcing people to look at it in a multidimensional aspect accuracy of diagnosis and treatment could be improved.

The medical people had their spin on it, the 12-step people had their definition, and neurobiological scientists are starting to discover new features. A more comprehensive way of looking at things is the biopsychosocial model of addiction. What exactly is that?

Well, the clue is in the name. It is an attempt to describe the complexity of the interaction of biological, psychological, and social features of addiction. They are basically saying they each component is insufficient unto its own to explain addiction.

The biological aspects take into account the genetic and inherited components of addiction, as well as the effects of addiction on the body itself. It also includes the neurobiological and neurobehavioral theories and studies, that are becoming predominant studying addiction. With the advent of brain scanning technology such as MRI scans, CAT scans, and SPECT scans, a whole new world of knowledge is opening up.

Psychological components of the disease of addiction are related to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors surrounding and generated by addiction. Psychologists have looked at addiction through psychoanalytic theory, social learning theory, classical conditioning theory, as well as personality theory. The psychological component has gained importance recently because of the fact that people diagnosed with addiction more often then not have a co-occurring mental health diagnoses such as depression, anxiety, or disordered eating.

The social component of the biopsychosocial theory of addiction focuses on families and relationships. Unquestionably addiction has a negative effect on how the addict relates to the world and people around him. Socail theories include family systems theory, social systems theory, and even cultural or anthropological theories.

Viewing will addiction in a multidimensional way is instrumental in getting a well-rounded view of both the problems generated by addiction and the areas that need to be addressed in treatment. Recently, some people have added the spiritual component to this multidimensional approach actually making it a biopsychosocialspiritual look at addiction.