Principles and Concepts of Behavioral Medicine

A Global Handbook

Edwin B. Fisher, Linda D. Cameron, Alan J. Christensen, Ulrike Ehlert, Brian Oldenburg, Frank J. Snoek

This definitive handbook brings together an international array of experts to present the broad, cells-to-society perspectives of behavioral medicine that complement  conventional models of health, health care, and prevention. In addition to applications to assessment, diagnosis, intervention, and management, contributors offer innovative prevention and health promotion strategies informed by current knowledge of the mechanisms and pathways of behavior change. Its range of conceptual and practical topics illustrates the central role of behavior in health at the individual, family, community, and population levels, and its increasing importance to person-centered care. The broad perspectives on risk (e.g., stress, lifestyle), management issues (e.g., adherence, social support), and overarching concerns (e.g., inequities, health policy) makes this reference uniquely global as it addresses the following core areas:

·         The range of relationships and pathways between behavior and health.

·         Knowing in behavioral medicine; epistemic foundations.

·         Key influences on behavior and the relationships among behavior, health, and illness.

·         Approaches to changing behavior related to health.

·         Key areas of application in prevention and disease management.

·         Interventions to improve quality of life.

·         The contexts of behavioral medicine science and practice.

Principles and Concepts of Behavioral Medicine opens out the contemporary world of behavior and health to enhance the work of behavioral medicine specialists, health psychologists, public health professionals and policymakers, as well as physicians, nurses, social workers and those in many other fields of health practice around the world.

Part 1: Fundamental Sciences of Behavioral Medicine.- Genetics and Behavior.- Physiological and psychophysiological processes central to health.- The psychology of learning, cognition and memory related to health.- Economics and individual behavior and choice.- Social and cultural influences on behaviors of individuals and groups.- Policies of governments, business entities, and organizations – how they are formulated and how they are changed.- International trade and health behavior.- Part 2: The Interfaces of Behavior and Health.- Risky behaviors – smoking, sedentary lifestyle, obesity.- Psychophysiological influences and stress.- Role of "self management" in health care (includes adherence).- Emotions, qualify of life, health, and illness.-  Lifespan perspectives on interfaces of behavior and health.- Part 3: Approaches to Changing Behavior Related to Health.- Health education.- Family and social approaches.- Community approaches.- Social marketing.- Policy change and health.- Part 4: Interventions to Prevent Health Problems.- Prevention of Cardiovascular, Diabetes, and Related Diseases.- Prevention of Arthritis, Asthma, and Related Diseases.- Prevention of Cancer.- Prevention of HIV/AIDS.- Prevention of Neurological Diseases: Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease.- Prevention of Health Problems of Violence and Injury.- Part 5: Interventions to Manage Diseases.- Management of Cardiovascular, Diabetes, and Related Diseases.- Management of Arthritis, Asthma, and Related Diseases.- Management of Cancer.- Management of HIV/AIDS.- Management of Neurological Diseases: Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease.- Management of Health Problems of Violence, Injury.- Part 6: Interventions to Enhance Quality of Life.- Psychological interventions in health and disease.- Social support interventions.-  End-of-life care.- Part 7: Broader Perspectives.- Who does behavioral medicine – training and dissemination.- Economic prosperity, disparities, health and behavioral medicine.- Globalization, health, and behavioral medicine.- Spirituality and behavioral medicine.- Values and behavioral medicine.- Impacts of emerging fundamental science on health, behavior and their interaction

Behavioral medicine is dedicated to advancing our understanding of scientific relations between sociocultural, psychosocial, and behavioral principles, on the one hand, and biological processes, physical health, and disease, on the other. Application of this understanding to prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation is a major aspect of behavioral medicine research and application. The field encompasses and/or overlaps onto the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, clinical medicine, rehabilitation, public health, epidemiology, health policy and economics, and biostatistics. Examples of typical research areas include appetitive disorders (alcoholism, smoking, obesity) that are physical risk factors; self-care and adherence to medical regimens and health maintenance practices; pain; self-regulation therapies for somatic disorders; sociocultural influences on health and illness; and brain-behavioral relationships that influence physiological functioning.

Behavioral medicine as a profession has burgeoned since the 1980s, when the biopsychosocial model of health and disease was incorporated into health care practice, largely supplanting the long-held Western view of health and illness as a primarily biomechanical process. Nowadays it is the norm to encounter clinical and health psychologists, as well as general and consultation-liaison psychiatrists, in most healthcare settings, working in tandem with internists, family doctors, and pediatricians to ensure optimal clinical outcomes for patients.

While there are many books available on health psychology, clinical psychology, counseling, and other components of behavioral medicine, there is no major work tying together the state-of-the-art for the field of behavioral medicine as an integrated whole.