Behavioural medicine is especially relevant where many of the health problems are primarily viewed as behavioural in nature practitioners of behavioural medicine include appropriately qualified psychologists, social workers, and physicians and these professionals often act as behavioural change agents, even in their medical role.

Behavioural medicine is an inter disciplinary field combining both medicine and psychology and is concerned with the integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioural, psychological and social sciences relevant to health and illness. These sciences include epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, physiology, pharmacology, nutrition, neuroanatomy, endocrinology, and immunology. The practice of behavioural medicine encompasses health psychology, but also includes applied psychophysiological therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy, clinical hypnosis, relaxation therapies and bio behavioural therapy of physical disorders, aspect of occupational therapy, rehabilitation medicine, and psychiatry as well as preventive medicine.

Behavioural medicine uses the bio psychological model of illness. The model incorporates biological, psychological and social elements into its approach to disease.