Introduction
The most interesting information I learned from Chapter 7 is the relationship between medical and sociological models of mental illness. The chapter tells how one or another model was more prevalent in different historical periods and how they influenced approaches to the therapy of mental disorders (Weitz, 2016).
Discussion
However, in reality, these models do not contradict but complement each other. For effective treatment of mental disorders and improvement of patients’ lives, it is necessary to provide direct medical care and solve systemic problems that become the causes of the development of mental illnesses. Drug treatment will not have much effect if a decisive sociological factor exists, such as poverty or some other type of inequality. On the other hand, understanding only global factors will not allow effective treatment of a specific patient with his problem.
The medical model considers mental disorders as physiological disorders subject to precise classification, with specific symptoms and solution algorithms. This approach tends to solve the purely physical problem that causes a mental illness with drug therapy. Establishing the problem usually occurs using diagnostic manuals, such as DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The disadvantage of this model is that mental disorders are very individual. Often the same symptoms can be caused by fundamentally different physiological reasons.
Conclusion
The sociological model focuses on systemic factors, usually of a social and cultural nature, which can contribute to developing mental disorders. The reasons considered by this approach are more general, such as the patient’s economic situation or social relations. This model emphasizes the need for social interventions to treat relevant disorders. The sociological approach is more comprehensive from the point of view of understanding the problem but less effective in dealing with specific pronounced symptoms.
Reference
Weitz, R. (2016). The Sociology of Health, Illness, and Health Care: A Critical Approach. Cengage Learning.