Psychology and Epidemiology: An Uncomfortable Alliance?

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Abstract
Issues arising in a joint enterprise of psychology and epidemiology are discussed. Technical difficulties include: case definition; population definition; definition of onset; repeated admissions; çase-to-case spread; social factors; and the social production of symptoms. The potential marginalization of psychosocial issues in epidemiology is discussed in terms of the prevailing western medical model, biomedicine. The disease—illness distinction is used to explore the limitations of using epidemiological concepts and methods with psychological data and also with medical data. It is suggested that psychology plays a role in transforming epidemiology by emphasizing the necessity for theory, removing inappropriate interdisciplinary boundaries, using qualitative methodology, avoiding a technicist approach, contributing to the clear design of studies and to an examination of the nature of the epidemiological enterprise.

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