Barriers to the Integration of Mind-Body Medicine: Perceptions of Physicians, Residents, and Medical Students

Despite evidence that psychosocial issues play an important role in health outcomes, students, residents, and practicing physicians reported that methods to deal with these issues are frequently given inadequate attention in medical training, and many physicians feel ill equipped to deal with these issues. In addition, environmental factors, including lack of time, insufficient monetary incentives, and a larger cultural ethos that favors the “quick-fix” over the more difficult task of examining the role of psychosocial factors, appear to serve as significant barriers to medicine's more fully embracing the biopsychosocial model.