Although much of the evidence on disease mechanisms is new, studies linking psychological factors to physiological effects have been accumulating for several decades. Yet the heady revolution has made little difference in the practice of medicine and the treatment of patients. Medical practice largely remains wedded to a mind less concept of disease that is clearly limited, and in many cases, unhelpful. Much of the armamentarium of medicine is increasingly irrelevant to the disorders that afflict people today. Medicine's record in controlling heart disease, strokes, cancer, arthritis, mental illness and other chronic diseases is not impressive. The "medical marvels" that physicians can bring to bear on disease apply to perhaps 20 percent of those who get sick victims of trauma, some acute illness but not chronic disease. Medicine's crisis has to do with the 80 percent that need doctors who have a good understanding of the mind as well as the body and who appreciate the interaction between the two.

Many of our current maladies are strongly influenced, both in onset and duration, by the way we think and behave demanding no frustrations, seeing problems as overwhelming, looking for the worst, alienating ourselves and others, smoking, over-drinking, overeating, not exercising. But medicine considers psychosocial factors peripherally, if at all, and continues to emphasize pathogenic germs and other agents as "the cause" of illness and drugs as "the cure." Most of the leading health problems are due to a disregulation or imbalance of bodily functions, stemming, for example, from a deficiency or excess of neurochemicals. To speak of "the cause" of disease today, as if some virus will be found solely responsible, is anachronistic.

Despite these limitations, medicine is still the beacon to which people flock for health care. Although some of its researchers are leaders of the heady revolution in science, most of its practitioners are not prepared to prevent or effectively treat the major health problems we face.