Is Tobacco Use Disorder a mental illness? A proposal for a psychological model
Keywords:
Behaviorism, Mental disorders, Psychological Model, Smoking, Tobacco use disorderAbstract
Analysis of the role of individual and sociocultural behavior in modifying health status is essential to explain the disease process from a psychological perspective. Tobacco use disorder is considered a chronic mental illness, but few behavioral aspects are considered in its diagnosis and treatment. Piña-López’s psychological model of biological health proposes the analysis of behavioral processes to describe and explain their relative influence on the biological states of organisms that are more or less susceptible to disease. This disorder was analyzed in three stages: past, present and future. The variables taken into account to determine how the disease is generated were situations related to stress, history of competences, motives, organismic dispositional events, present competences, social dispositional events, and risk and prevention behaviors. This type of analysis makes it possible to marginalize the perspective of a chronic mental illness and to consider the contingency aspects of behavior implied in the consumption patterns.
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