Studying the Bio-psycho-social Model of Doctor-Patient Relationship: A Transition over the Biomedical Model

The importance and the effect of social relationship between doctors and patients on clinical, psychological-social, and behavioral consequences of consultation has resulted in considerable attention towards the forms and factors which are decisive in this relationship. The main purpose of this study is to examine the biopsychosocial model of doctor-patient relationship as a transition over the biomedical model. The method adopted in this study is a documentary research method. English articles dating from 1980 to 2011 were obtained from Proquest, Wiley, and Springer databases, and words like doctor-patient relationship, biomedical model, and bio-psychosocial model were among their keywords. Some Persian articles have also been included. In developed countries, information exchange is the governing relationship model, and health consuming movement has led to the widespread utilization of the model of cooperative decision making and patient-based relationship, in which the necessity of a holistic approach to the multidimensional human increasingly arises, a human composed of bio-psycho-social dimensions. This complexity exerts a phenomenal change in the doctor-patient relationship; a transition from linear biomedical model to circular bio-psycho-social model with many interactions. In order to search for more effective and humane health care, the sociological study of the doctor-patient relationship can accentuate the social contexts which have been neglected in the curing process of the patients. Thus teaching the communicative skills, creating suitable bonds in the fields of research and instruction between faculties of human sciences and medical sciences, and replacing patient-based relationship models can be considered as suitable ways for the transition from the conventional concept biomedical model to the multidimensional concept of bio-psychosocial model.