Theoretical Framework for Multiple Mental Disorder and the Biopsychopolitical Model of Mental Illnesses: Underscoring the Pressure of Politics on Citizens’ SocialDeterminants of Mental Illnesses

Abstract

From the inception of psychiatry and clinical psychology as specialties destined to deal with mental illnesses, there have been considerable advances in the search for their etiology; and their nosology and intervention guidelines are updated regularly. Different models that explain etiologic mechanisms of mental illnesses have been formulated and successfully guided and still guide their management but due to the ever-increasing prevalence of mental illnesses worldwide, the search for models to explain their etiology and guide interventions is still an open area for research and debate. Due to the shortcomings of comorbidity and multimorbidity concepts in explaining the co-occurrence of two or more mental disorders that share the same pathogenetic pathways and present overlapping symptoms, the theoretical framework for multiple mental disorder (MMD) as a single compound mental disorder is presented. This paper also takes the social aspect of mental disorders to the next level that emphasizes for the first time the contribution of political systems to the mental ill-health of their own citizens and proposes the biopsychopolitical (BPP) model that explains the etiology of multiple mental disorder and other mental illnesses and guide their management.

Keywords

• biopsychopolitical model (bpp)
• comorbidity, multimorbidity
• multiple mental disorder (mmd)