According to the previous section, the biopsychosocial model is a theoretical framework that could potentially be applied to understand patient perception and how the workings of the body can affect the mind, as well as how the functioning of the mind can in turn affect the body (Halligan & Aylward, 2006). This means both a direct interaction between mind and body as well as indirect effects. The biopsychosocial model presumes that it is important to handle the three together as a growing body of literature suggesting that patient perceptions of health and threat of disease, as well as barriers in a patient’s social or cultural environment, appear to in uence the likelihood that a patient will engage in health-promoting or treatment behaviors, such as taking medication appropriately, following proper diet or nutritional guidelines, and engaging in physical activity (DiMatteo, Haskard & Williams, 2007). Therefore, when depression during pregnancy exists, perhaps it is this element of increased risk which leads to an increased likelihood of disease.