Research and practice directions in risk for disability prediction and early intervention

Both traditional medical models, including the biomedical model and the psychiatric model, have failed to explain and arrest the expansion of the occupational disability epidemic (Schultz et al., 2000). A new generation of disabilities, including musculoskeletal pain, mild traumatic brain injuries, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and other poorly medically understood conditions continue to challenge scientists, clinicians, health care, compensation and legal systems, as well as the economy in general. These conditions appear to be best conceptualized, ameliorated and prevented using an integrated biopsychosocial model and, therefore, may best be called biopsychosocial disabilities, in defiance of the Cartesian mind-body dichotomy. The Panel on Musculoskeletal Disorders and the Workplace of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine (2001) aptly stipulated that: "Because workplace disorders and individual risk and outcomes are inextricably bound, musculoskeletal disorders should be approached in the context of the whole person rather than focusing on body regions in isolation" (p. 9). This comment appears to apply well to all biopsychosocial disabilities, as our book clearly demonstrates.