This article provides an overview of the emerging literature on biopsychosocial assessment and treatment for two of the most common forms of arthritis: osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The article is divided into 3 parts. In the 1st part, the basic elements of the biopsychosocial approach to assessing and treating persons having arthritis is described. In the 2nd part, the authors evalu...

This dissertation consists of two articles written to address the context of type 2 diabetes care in African American women. In addition, the proposal and required Institutional Review Board (IRB) documentation are included as Appendices. The first article is a review of the existing literature regarding the psychosocial and spiritual aspects of type 2 diabetes management and outcomes in Africa...

This paper describes the Biopsychosocial Theory and contrasts it to the traditional theories of addiction. Included in the discussion is how the new theory incorporates the strengths of the older traditional theories while remaining a distinct entity with a unique set of hypotheses, and the addition of the spiritual dimension, which, from the Alcohol and Drug Services’ (ADS) perspective, has ge...

Patient self-report questionnaires such as a multidimensional health assessment questionnaire (MDHAQ) have advanced knowledge concerning prognosis, care, course and outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The MDHAQ may overcome some limitations of a “biomedical model,” the dominant paradigm of contemporary medical services, including limitations of laboratory tests, radiographs, joint counts, an...

The biomedical model of health and disease dominates in current medical practice. The model attributes key role to biological determinants and explains disease as a condition caused by external pathogens or disorders in the functions of organs and body systems. Such an approach has its historic justification and has proved effective in the control of massive infectious diseases. However, now th...