How can we study healing?: Reflections on salutogenesis, causation, and methodology

Area of Science:

• Integrative Medicine
• Health Sciences
• Medical Sociology

Background:

• The concept of healing is multidimensional and multifactorial.
• Previous work provided a conceptual history of healing.
• Understanding healing requires examining disease causation and health development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To offer guidance on studying the healing process.
• To propose a research model for healing.
• To integrate diverse theoretical approaches to healing.

Main Methods:

• Combining conceptual understandings of disease causation.
• Integrating theoretical approaches to pathogenesis and salutogenesis.
• Developing a model drawing on multifactorial risk, etiology, and physiology.

Main Results:

• A proposed model for studying the healing process.
• Guidance for research combining disease causation and salutogenesis.
• Integration of insights from risk, etiology, health, and physiology.

Conclusions:

• The proposed model facilitates research into the complex healing process.
• Integrating multiple theoretical frameworks enhances the study of healing.
• Future research can utilize this model to explore healing's multifactorial nature.