Comparison of Disease model and Biopsychosocial Approach Addiction Models

Models of addiction are theories that have been developed to help researchers and practitioners to understand the complex science of addiction better and to develop a structural approach towards assessment, prevention, and treatment of addiction problems. There are several numbers of addiction model theories that have been developed over the years each with different explanation of the complex interaction between social, biological, psychological and spiritual aspects of addiction. Harm Reduction Model, Disease Model, and Biopsychological Approach are some of the most popular examples of models of addiction theories today. This paper is a comparison of Disease model and Biopsychosocial Approach in regards to their approaches to the issue of addiction as well as their strengths and limitations. Disease Model The disease model of addiction classed addiction and alcoholism as a disease because it is associated with a chemical and biological issue that primary, progressive and fatal if left untreated.

Another advantage of disease addiction model is because it decriminalizes addiction allows more addicts to come forward to seek help. Biopsychosocial Approach Biopsychological model is a relatively new approach of looking at the issue of addiction that was originally developed as an alternative to the prevailing contemporary models such as biomedical. As the name suggests, this model has based on the perspective that human beings are inherently biopsychosocial organism who are biological, psychological and social dimensions are inextricably intertwined. This model scientifically based and integrates the full range of social, biological and psychological dimensions of a person with the addiction (Cheatle, 2016). The early development of Biopsychosocial model of addiction can be traced back to 1977 when George L. References Cheatle, M. D.