Biopsychosocial

https://reddit.com/link/1mhi612/video/z6zihnbp31hf1/player

True, it took time to learn to say “biopsychosocial” without pausing. Regardless of that, it is a very important concept and, let’s be straight, a significant change in the way we (humankind) apply the knowledge we have gathered on how human biology, psychology and groups of people work.

Biopsychosocial model is the way to interpret how human health depends on biological (genetic, physiological, biochemical), psychological (behaviour, moods, personal qualities) and social (family, culture, healthcare, political, economical, etc.) factors interact. Model also focuses on not only diagnosing and treating the diseases, but also on preventing them as well as proper rehabilitation after the disease is cured or treated, across all three layers – biological, social and psychological (1). It all seems to be logically related.

How is this related to eating and psychology? Very. To explain everything and clearly, I need to write about nutrition physiology, about moods, about behaviour, about families, about restaurants and about school canteens, because everything is related to everything else, everything is entangled, and everything affects everything else. There is no clear borderline where psychology ends and public health or medicine starts. There are no purely medical reasons and no purely psychological reasons. Reasons always are both psychological and medical, and changes in one area will always affect another.

This point of view is reflected in the current studies:

• In study with 8-11 year old children researchers concluded that when children started being interested in their weight, all factors are equally related: biological (BMI) significantly affects psychological worrying and anxiety, and main reasons of planned changes were perceived peer, media and parental pressure (social factor) (2).

• Biopsychosocial model when used to explain feeding children, focuses on environmental factors (when and where food is consumed, which people eat together); related diseases and risk factors (allergies, food intolerance, diseases limiting consumption of specific foods); eating peculiarities (food they like, previous eating experiences, likes); feeding difficulties (known difficulties of feeding caretakers along with their interpretation and reaction), poor feeding results (again, along with interpretation about the potential consequences), eating schedule and feeding habits (what is the regular routine, why it is specifically this and how it affects people preparing the food, feeding and eating the food), also on personal qualities of the caretaker (3). And you thought it is only a matter of how sweet is the porridge?

• When doctors treat stomach aches with undefined reason, they tend to include not only biological factors (nociceptic), but also psychological (affective factor) as well as personal history and cultural environment (4).

• Studies of factors that are most important among teenage girls with eating difficulties show that internalizing (closing in negative emotions and hiding from others), comparing themselves with peers, bulimic symptoms (binging episodes) are intermediate and supporting factors, adding on to how emotional experiences and cultural influence shape worry about body image and disordered eating behaviour (5)

Everything is related to everything else. Disease is not cured only by just taking medicine – even if we do not focus on it, we still create emotionally and physically supporting environment (warm blanket, funny movies, cancelling work and meetings, sleeping in, talking on the phone and in the chats, “sit with me”…) to get better. And this is just a small example.

#spoonfulofreason #psychology #eating #biopsychosocial

Links:

1. Biopsychosocial model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychosocial_model

2. A biopsychosocial model for understanding body image and body change strategies among children: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0193397303000704

3. A Biopsychosocial Model of Normative and Problematic Pediatric Feeding: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230596606_A_Biopsychosocial_Model_of_Normative_and_Problematic_Pediatric_Feeding

4. Recurrent abdominal pain and the biopsychosocial model of medical practice: http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(98)70053-8/abstract

5. A Biopsychosocial Model of Body Image Concerns and Disordered Eating in Early Adolescent Girls: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-013-0013-7

My name is Monika. I am a health and nutrition psychologist. I help people with daily and challenging questions about behaviour, thinking, and emotions. I write, give lectures, and provide psychological counselling. You can book my session here: https://calendly.com/saukstasproto/psichologine-konsultacija