An Integrated Bio-psycho-social Approach to Psychiatric Disorders

The biopsychosocial approach is a model of eclecticism, which consists of multidisciplinary academic fields, reacting against the “neuroscientification” of psychiatry. The biopsychosocial approach was proposed by George Engel following Adolf Meyer’s psychobiological and Roy R. Ginker’s eclectic approach to psychiatry. Although the use of the biopsychosocial approach is increasing, it has several limitations: First, specific practices cannot be guided by the biopsychosocial approach because it is considered to be “boundless psychiatry.” Second, unlike an initial intention, the symptomatic use of psychotropic medications may be justified by the biopsychosocial approach. Third, the economic forces to enhance biological psychiatry cannot be hindered by the biopsychosocial approach. Hence, to overcome the limitations of the current biopsychosocial approach, potential new paradigms including evolutionary psychiatry, pragmatism, integrationism, and pluralism have been proposed. Above all, Eric Kandel presented the link between neuroscience and psychiatry from the perspective of integrationism. In accordance with integrationism and/or pluralism, based on the paradigm shift of the theoretical construct from chemical imbalance to dysfunctional circuit, next-generation treatments for mental disorders have been proposed by Thomas Insel. Thus, a more integrated biopsychosocial approach to managing psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and panic disorder may be proposed.