Biopsychosocial Model

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Pages: 6

This essay will explore mental health and substance use disorders and the relationship, which often occurs among them, know as the comorbidity. Mental health and substance use disorders will be examined on a biological, psychological, and sociological level to assess whether or not a substance use disorder, can manifest as a mental illness within an individual. This essay will also explore the affects substance use disorders has on the individual and how these effects may possibly exacerbate mental illnesses and their symptoms. Furthermore mental illness and substance use disorders will be assessed to determine what extent they overlap. Drug induced psychosis as it relates to the comorbidity of mental illness and substance use disorder will …show more content…
Mental illnesses affect individuals from all capacities of life regardless of gender, race, and age. There are numerous forms of mental illnesses that impacts individuals in various fashions, however, there is no one direct cause of mental illnesses, rather they are a combination of biological, psychological, and social components that have a direct impact on the individual. Rashmi Nemade, Ph.D., Natalie Staats Reiss, Ph.D., and Mark Dombeck, Ph.D. clarify the importance of the biopsychosocial model as they wrote in an article titled Current Understanding of Major Depression – Biopsychosocial Model, “The mind and the body are not independent and separate things (as was previously thought), but rather are connected and interdependent things (if they are indeed separate things at all). What affects the body will often affect the mind; and vice versa, what affects the mind will also often end up affecting the body” (Nemade, Reiss, and Dombeck 2007). On a biological level individuals are impacted by an abnormalities and vulnerablities within their genetics, which can predispose an individual to potentially inheriting a mental illness. Other biological factors that can also lead to mental illnesses are abnormal performance of the nerve cells in the brain, which allow different regions of the brain communicate to other regions of the brain and body through the use of neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters can also be affected by lack of or excess of chemicals. In addition the synaptic clef can also be a biologically damaged leading to the manifestation of a mental illness as the communication between neurons is hindered. On a psychological level, the cognition and behavior of an individual are impacted by thoughts, behavior, and emotion, which can be impacted negatively by the lack or excess of neurotransmitters. The psychological component being closely