BIO-PSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL OF HEALTH

Psychosocial Health:
By this we mean that Being Mentally, Emotionally, Socially, and Spiritually Well

Basic elements of Psychologically Healthy People
Psychologically healthy people

  1. Feel good about themselves
  2. Feel comfortable with other people
  3. Control tension and anxiety
  4. Able to meet the demands of life
  5. Curb hate and guilt
  6. Maintain a positive outlook
  7. Enrich lives of others
  8. Appreciate nature
  9. Cherish the things that make them happy

Components of psychosocial health
Components include

  1. Emotional Health (Feeling)
  2. Spiritual Health (Being)
  3. Social Health (Relating)
  4. Mental Health (Thinking)

Emotional health:

    1. It is the “feeling” or subjective side.
    2. Emotions are actually intensified feelings or complex patterns of feelings

Spiritual health:

  1. It adds meaning to life
  2. Gives us the ability to connect to inner-self, and to the higher cause of our existence

Social health:

  1. It is the ability to interact with others.
  2. Social bonds: social linkages
  3. Social supports: relationships that bring positive benefits to the individual

Mental health:

  1. It is Intellectual, rational, thinking.
  2. It gives us the ability to reason, interpretation, sorting information and making decisions

 

Factors that influence Psychosocial Health

  1. External factors
  1. These are the factors which we cannot control
  2. Family upbringing (healthy vs. dysfunctional)
  3. The wider environment (safety, access to health services, socioeconomic status)
  4. Social supports and social bonds

 

  1. Internal factors
  1. These include hereditary traits, hormonal function, physical, emotional, mental)
  2. Self-efficacy
  3. Learned helplessness (response to continued failure where people give up) versus learned optimism (retraining people to become optimistic)
  4. Personality changes throughout lifespan and maturity

Enhancing Psychosocial Health
Psychosocial health can be enhanced by

  1. Developing and maintaining self-esteem and self-efficacy
  2. Self-esteem: sense of self-respect and self-confidence
  3. Support groups
  4. Completing required tasks
  5. Forming realistic goals
  6. Making time for you
  7. Maintaining physical health
  8. Examining problem and seeking help
  9. Self-efficacy: belief in one's own ability to perform a task successfully

Sleep: The Great Restorer

  1. Sleep conserves energy and restores neurotransmitters
  2. Sleep is essential to psychosocial health
  3. Insomnia: difficulty falling asleep
  4. Sleep apnea: breathing stops numerous times while sleeping
  5. To get enough sleep, establish a consistent schedule, evaluate your sleep environment, exercise regularly, limit caffeine and alcohol, avoid heavy meals at bedtime

Spirituality:
It is an Inner Quest for Well Being

  1. Spirituality includes mindfulness, faith, hope, love, sense of connectedness, sense of meaning and purpose
  2. Spirituality:  a key to health and wellness
  3. Four basic needs:  need for having; need for relating; need for being; need for transcendence
  4. Spirituality & religion shown to positively affect:
  5. Mental health
  6. Stress
  7. Blood pressure
  8. Recovery
  9. Mortality
  10. Immunity
  11. Lifestyle

The Mind Body Connection

  1. Happiness:  A key to well being
  2. Subjective well being: feeling characterized by satisfaction with present life, presence of positive emotions, absence of negative emotions
  3. Myths and misperceptions about happiness: there is no happiest age, no gender gap in happiness, minimal racial differences, weak correlation between money and happiness
  4. Laughter and health: laughter proven to enhance health–sharpens immune systems, and reducing stress hormone

 

Psycho-social problems in gynecological and obstetrics
Pregnancy:

  1. Maternity blues
  2. Post partum affective disorder
  3. Manic episodes
  4. Depressive episodes
  5. Mixed
  6. Post partum psychosis
  7. Schizophrenia
  8. Delusional disorder

Psycho-social problems in gynecological and obstetrics
In general and during pregnancy:

  1. Depressive illness
  2. Anxiety disorders
  3. Generalized anxiety disorders
  4. Post traumatic stress disorder
  5. Obsessive compulsive disorders
  6. Stress disorder
  7. Phobias
  8. Schizophrenia like disorders
  9. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder

Depression

  1. Major Depressive Disorder – severe depression with chronic mood disorder, physical effects as exhaustion, mental effects as inability to concentrate
  2. Chronic Mood Disorder – extreme/persistent sadness, despair and hopelessness 
  3. Risks for Depression – 10% in general population
  4. Depression and Gender (2/3 of sufferers are women)

Facts and Fallacies About Depression

  1. Depression is not natural reaction to crisis/loss
  2. Depressed people cannot “snap out of it”
  3. Crying is not a hallmark of depression
  4. Depression is not “all in the mind”
  5. No single psychotherapy works for all cases of depression

Treating Depression:

  1. Both pharmacological(relieve symptoms) and psychotherapeutic(improve ability to function)
  2. Cognitive therapy- looks at life rationally, focus on the present, promote pessimistic, reasoning/behavioral exercises
  3. Interpersonal therapy – correct relationships
  4. Antidepressant drugs – relieve symptoms in 80%(ex.  Prozac)
  5. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) – less used, use of electric current for drug unresponsiveness

Anxiety Disorders

  1. Anxiety disorders: characterized by persistent feelings of threat and anxiousness in coping with everyday problems
  2. Panic attacks- form of panic disorders with sudden onsets of disabling terror
  3. Phobias- fears resulting in avoidance
  4. Stress: When problems are greater than resources
  5. Obsessive Compulsive disorders: Repetitions in the form of impulses, thoughts, ruminations, images and phobias-- resistance and anxiety.

Sources of Anxiety Disorders

  1. Biology: tendency may be inherited
  2. Environment: anxiety may be a learned response
  3. Social and Cultural Roles: gender roles may a factor

Anxiety Disorders

  1. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): type of depression associated with reduced sunlight/ winter blues
  2. Schizophrenia: incurable disorder characterized by hallucinations and radical changes in emotions, movements, and behaviors
  3. Gender issues in psychosocial health
  4. PMD:  physical or mental disorder? DSM IV
  5. Controversy over classification

Suicide: Giving Up on Life

  1. Who is at risk?
  2. Suicide is third leading cause of death in people between the ages of 15 and 24
  3. Other groups with many suicides: elderly men, never-married people, young gay men.

Warning Signs of Suicide

  1. Recent loss
  2. Changes in behavior
  3. Diminished sexual interest
  4. Expressions of self hatred
  5. Change in sleep patterns
  6. Change in eating habits
  7. Statement about committing suicide
  8. Indirect statement
  9. Final preparations
  10. Unexplained happiness following depression
  11. Marked change in physical appearance
  12. Excessive risk taking

Seeking Professional Help

  1. Getting evaluated for treatment
  2. Mental health professionals:
  3. Psychiatrist – writes prescriptions treats mental/emotional disorders
  4. Psychologist – have training in psychology and give psychotherapy
  5. Psychoanalyst – psychoanalyst/psychiatrist trained in psychoanalysis. (treats early traumas)
  6. Counselor – masters in counseling
  7. Psychiatric nurse specialist – certified Nursing college