Sociodemographic diversity and behavioral medicine.

The broad array of economic and cultural diversity in the U.S. population correlates with and impacts on the study of behavioral aspects of health. The purpose of this article was to provide a selective overview of behavioral medicine research on sociodemographically diverse populations, with a focus on ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Suggestions are provided with regard to methodological refinement of research and insights into possible future directions in behavioral medicine research on ethnically and economically diverse populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The value of behavioral research on animals.

Presents facts documented by references to provide evidence regarding the value of behavioral research on animals. It is argued that attempts by radical animal activists to mislead humane people by repeatedly asserting such research is completely without any value and by other false statements are a disservice to animal welfare by deflecting funds from worthy activities. Some of the contributions of animal research have led to improvements in the welfare of animals. Animal research has also led to advances in psychotherapy, especially behavior therapy and behavioral medicine; rehabilitation of neuromuscular disorders; understanding and alleviating effects of stress and pain; discovery and testing of drugs for treatment of anxiety, psychosis, and Parkinson's disease; knowledge about mechanisms of drug addiction, relapse, and damage to the fetus; and understanding the mechanisms of some deficits of memory that occur with aging. (3 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral medicine: 2002 and beyond.

This article highlights future directions for research and practice in behavioral medicine. Topics addressed include social and environmental issues, the role of technology, translational research, improving and developing interventions, and professional training and retraining. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Medical psychology: Contributions to behavioral medicine.

Reviews the book, Medical psychology: Contributions to behavioral medicine edited by Charles K. Prokop and Laurence A. Bradley (1981). This book is another generally commendable entry on a growing list of books that overview the field of Medical Psychology, Health Psychology, or Behavioral Medicine. The book is divided into four sections: An Introduction, Assessment of Medical Disorders, Treatment and Prevention of Medical Disorders, and Special Topics in Medical Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. The second and third sections account for the bulk of the volume and comprise critical reviews of psychological approaches to assessment and treatment of specific health problems. Both assessment and treatment are mentioned by the editors as areas in which medical psychology has made unique contributions to behavioral medicine. Other issues described as important contributions--issues such as prevention and evaluation--are covered only briefly. This book is a highly useful source book. It is especially valuable to the applied researcher or practitioner who works with several departments in a medical school or other health setting. For such individuals, this volume can provide research and treatment programs in the specialty areas represented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some structural changes that might facilitate the development of behavioral medicine.

Three types of organizational change are considered that may facilitate the development of behavioral medicine teaching, practice, and research over the next decade. The first and most critical of these changes is a consideration of the role of a department of behavioral medicine within the medical school. The second is support for the development of research collaborations across centers, with the advantage of bringing a broader array of expertise and facilities to the solution of health problems. Finally, some changes in the role and organization of scientific societies that support behavioral medicine are considered. It is argued that, without such changes, behavioral medicine will become overly narrow in its focus and will not have the impact on the medical arena that it might otherwise have. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Public Health and Psychology: An Important, Expanding Interaction.

The authors opine that the behavioral sciences and the field of psychology are absolutely vital in meeting the nation's needs regarding health and health policy. Psychologists have become increasingly involved in health psychology, as reflected by the establishment and rapid growth of Division 38 (Health Psychology). This expansion of psychologists' involvement in physical health research and intervention has led to increased contact between psychologists and nurses, public health experts, and nonpsychiatric physicians. With such contact, psychologists are being recruited into the faculties of schools of nursing, schools of public health, and schools of medicine. This article examines aspects of psychology's role in, involvement with, and contribution to one sector of this arena--public health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aging in rhesus monkeys: Different windows on behavioral continuity and change.

Rhesus monkeys were observed longitudinally from 6 to 20 years of age, the period encompassing early to late adulthood in this species. Repeated-measures analyses of the monkeys' behavioral repertoire revealed 3 quite different pictures of the aging process. First, there were significant systematic changes in the levels of many categories of behavior with increasing age, although the direction and timing of change varied from category to category. Second, for most categories, individual differences among the monkeys were highly stable from early to late adulthood. Finally, there was remarkable consistency within individual behavioral profiles across the entire study such that each monkey retained its distinctive behavioral features (personality) throughout its adult years. Thus, aging in rhesus monkeys is characterized by both continuity and change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sociocultural and cognitive factors in aging and sexual expression: Conceptual and research issues.

Delineates the importance of investigating sexuality in aging, summarizes aspects of current knowledge about sociocultural and cognitive factors influencing problems with existing sex research, and offers recommendations for future research on sexuality in aging people. A study describing the behavioral, cognitive, and affective aspects of sexual expression in a sample of aging married couples (50–80 yrs) is presented to illustrate how some previous methodological difficulties might be addressed. Findings identify some of the realities of sexuality in aging individuals and illustrate the complexities in the definition and evaluation of sexual expression and experience. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Impact of Childhood Intelligence on Later Life: Following Up the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947.

The Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947 collected valid IQ-type test scores for almost everyone born in 1921 and 1936 and attending school on June 1, 1932 (N=89,498) and June 4, 1947 (N=70,805). These surveys are described. This research, using the surveys' data, examined (a) the stability of intelligence differences across the life span, (b) the determinants of cognitive change from childhood to old age, and (c) the impact of childhood intelligence on survival and health in old age. Surviving participants of the Scottish Mental Surveys were tested, and the surveys' data were linked with public and health records. Novel findings on the stability of IQ scores from age 11 to age 80; sex differences in cognitive aging; the dedifferentiation hypothesis of cognitive aging; and the effect of childhood IQ on all-cause and specific mortality, morbidity, and frailty in old age are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A discourse on behavioral medicine: Current status and future trends.

Suggests that the field of behavioral medicine encompasses considerable diversity of opinion and interests and that the increasing volume of clinical and research activity bodes well for the future. Although some areas of clinical intervention still lack systematic evaluation of treatment outcome and efficacy, the potential of the behavioral medicine approach has been amply demonstrated. Four areas of behavioral intervention are identified as overt behavior or physiological response that constitutes a health problem, improvement of health care delivery, treatment adherence, and risk factors for disease. Particularly noted is research on biobehavioral adaptations to the environment. (77 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health psychology at the crossroads.

Reviews the books, Handbook of psychology and health, volume I: Clinical psychology and behavioral medicine: Overlapping disciplines, edited by R. J. Gatchel, A. Baum, and J. E. Singer (see record 1985-97683-000); Handbook of psychology and health, volume II: Issues in child health and adolescent health, edited by A. Baum and J. E. Singer (1982); and Introduction to medical psychology by J. C. Norton (1982). The conflict between the traditional medical model and the biopsychosocial model threatens to prevent the establishment of health psychology's principles and identity. This conflict clearly characterizes the volumes presently under review. James C. Norton's Introduction to medical psychology aims to introduce mental health professionals to medicine, to teach behavioral treatments for disease, and to address issues of health promotion. The Handbook of psychology and health is a much more ambitious attempt to meet the same goals. The volumes are "intended for investigators, clinicians, teachers, and both graduate and undergraduate students." Given tradition, simplicity, inertia, and existing status structures, the traditional medical model has an almost overwhelming allure. Unfortunately, the traditional medical model also is inadequate, and its deficiencies cannot be remedied by forcing psychological and behavioral problems into its mechanistic clutches. By carefully reviewing and evaluating complex issues in health psychology while simultaneously endeavoring to prescribe clinical and medical treatments, the volumes under review delineate the dilemma facing health psychology; but they do little to resolve it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of behavioral medicine.

Reviews the book, Handbook of behavioral medicine by W. Doyle Gentry (1984). This volume, which was years in the writing, is less a handbook than it is a compendium of well-written chapters by outstanding researchers discussing selected important areas in the field of behavioral medicine. These areas include psychosocial factors related to etiology of disease; cardiovascular, immunological, and gastrointestinal disease mechanisms; coping; patient decision-making; compliance; and behavioral and community interventions. This volume is not as inclusive as one would expect from a handbook, neither in thoroughness of literature reviews nor in topic areas covered. However, the chapter topics are well chosen and the book provides a detailed assessment of current work in these important areas. The reviewer found this volume to be impressive because of the high quality of writing and the careful discussion of issues and research in each of these important topic areas. Those wanting to keep informed about conceptual models and research findings in the health psychology and behavioral medicine areas will find this book to be invaluable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress-relevant deviance and sources of stress negotiation difficulties in the medical setting.

Uses theoretical formulations and findings from experimental personality research on stress and coping to evaluate common stress management techniques in the behavioral medicine domain. A distinction is made between procedures that attempt to regulate internal stress arousal (fear-control techniques) and those that focus on personal coping activity and the mobilization of environmental counter-threat resources (danger control techniques); the primary focus is on danger control techniques. A preliminary theoretical framework is advanced for considering the danger control aspects of behavioral medical interventions; this framework focuses on informational factors pertaining to the controllability of stressor events. Impediments to stress management in the behavioral medicine setting suggested by stress-relevant deficits and anomalies associated with psychopathology are also discussed. Tentative implications for improved stress management procedures in behavioral medicine are proposed. (French abstract) (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early Career Awards for 1978: Gary E. Schwartz.

Gary E. Schwarts earned the Early Career Award for his outstanding contributions to our understanding of biofeedback and self-regulation of psychophysiological processes and the application of this knowledge to research on the etiology and treatment of psychosomatic and affective disorders. Schwartz conducted pioneering studies in humans, demonstrating learned specificity and patterning in the cardiovascular system and the potential of self-control of blood pressure in the treatment of hypertension. His innovative theories and research on facial muscle patterning and self-regulation of emotion in depression, lateralization of brain mechanisms in emotion, and self-regulation and disregulation in stress and disease successfully integrated psychobiology with psychopathology and medicine and enabled him to play a leading role in the development of the new fields of health psychology and behavioral medicine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes toward aging as a function of in-service training and practitioner age

Age differences in attitudes toward aging were investigated as a function of a 3-hour training program with 322 women (18-74 years) from various geriatric health care and social service contexts. Using a quasi-experimental pre- and posttest design, sites were randomly divided into initial experimental and control groups, with all control participants receiving training following the research program. Results indicated few instances of unfavorable attitudes toward aging in any age group, with younger women evidencing less cynicism toward aging, less social distance from the aged, and slightly less stereotyping. Training appeared to result in less cynicism, stronger endorsements of family and public responsibility, and slightly greater anxiety. No Age X Pretest/Posttest interactions were found. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for service provider-client interaction, the correspondence of attitudinal and behavioral change, and appropriate instruments for assessing program impact.     

Testing the biopsychosocial model: The ultimate challenge facing behavioral medicine?

Proposes that the ultimate challenge facing behavioral medicine is the empirical testing of the biopsychosocial model. Drawing upon S. C. Pepper's (1942) philosophy of science writings, the author illustrates the formistic, mechanistic, contextual, and organistic ways of thinking about health and illness. It is suggested that single-category, single-cause, single-effect models of health and illness are being replaced by multicategory, multicause, multieffect models and that this reflects a major paradigm shift in science in general. Basic aspects of systems theory are applied to the 4 major definitions of behavioral medicine and the 4 major stages of clinical research. The Patient Evaluation Grid is used to highlight how clinical data can be collected biopsychosocially. The emerging roles of psychology as the "middle" discipline and medicine as a biopsychosocial profession are considered in relation to medical education and the practice of behavioral medicine. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inactivation and degradation of CuZn-SOD by active oxygen species in wheat chloroplasts exposed to photooxidative stress

Substantial increases in the relative and absolute number of older persons in our society pose a challenge for biology, social and behavioral science, and medicine. Successful aging is multidimensional, encompassing the avoidance of disease and disability, the maintenance of high physical and cognitive function, and sustained engagement in social and productive activities. Research has identified factors predictive of success in these critical domains. The stage is set for intervention studies to enhance the proportion of our population aging successfully.     

Review of Psychological and behavioral aspects of physical disability—A manual for health practitioners.

Reviews the book, Psychological and behavioral aspects of physical disability—A manual for health practitioners by James E. Lindemann (1981). According to the authors indication in the preface, this book is a guide for professionals who work with people with serious physically disabling conditions. It aims to provide information and "how-to" suggestions for evaluation and treatment of physical disabilities. The book focuses on helping people make decisions, acquire skills, and seek experiences that permit them most fully to enjoy the competency and satisfaction of human existence. It is based on the emerging development in behavioral medicine and health psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in learning from positive and negative probabilistic feedback.

Objective: Past research has investigated age differences in frontal-based decision making, but few studies have focused on the behavioral effects of striatal-based changes in healthy aging. Feedback learning has been found to vary with dopamine levels; increases in dopamine facilitate learning from positive feedback, whereas decreases facilitate learning from negative feedback. Given previous evidence of striatal dopamine depletion in healthy aging, we investigated behavioral differences between college-aged and healthy older adults using a feedback learning task that is sensitive to both frontal and striatal processes. Method: Seventeen college-aged (M = 18.9 years) and 24 healthy, older adults (M = 70.3 years) completed the Probabilistic Selection task, in which participants are trained on probabilistic stimulus-outcome information and then tested to determine whether they learned more from positive or negative feedback. Results: As a group, the older adults learned equally well from positive and negative feedback, whereas the college-aged group learned more from positive than negative feedback, F(1, 39) = 4.10, p effect = .3. However, these group differences were not due to older individuals being more balanced learners. Most individuals of both ages were balanced learners, but while all of the remaining young learners had a positive bias, the remaining older learners were split between those with positive and negative learning biases (χ2(2) = 6.12, p     

Role of behavior theory in behavioral medicine.

Behavioral medicine is a multidisciplinary field that combines research methods and findings from behavioral and biomedical sciences. Many investigators in the field have tended to emphasize the contribution of the biomedical more than the behavioral sciences. This is evident in the emphasis on biological rather than behavioral outcomes and on the reductionist approach within the field to reduce mechanisms responsible for behavioral effects and disease to biological influences. There has been a similar shift in psychology toward mechanistic, bottom-up approaches to understanding mechanisms responsible for integrated and dynamic behavior. These shifts in emphasis have stimulated investigators to examine the use of biomedical methods and findings as causes and explanations for behavior, rather than to utilize newer findings in behavioral sciences. New advances in basic research on learning are used to illustrate that findings from behavioral science have implications for the field of contemporary behavioral medicine. Finally, the importance of developing new technologies for measuring behavior is presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)