Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the development and integration of sociocultural, psychosocial, behavioral and biomedical knowledge and techniques relevant to the understanding of health and illness and the application of this knowledge and these techniques to disease prevention, health promotion, etiology, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation.The original definition of the field of behavioral medicine was developed at the Yale Conference on Behavioral Medicine and later published by Gary Schwartz and Stephen Weiss [1]. Since that time there have been various refinements to the definition as stated in the preceding definition. The overarching content structure will be based on the three fundamental domains within behavioral medicine, which yield three sections:Section I: Basic ResearchSection II: Clinical InvestigationSection III: Public HealthThe domain of basic research addresses the key questions of mechanisms of action, both in terms of how behavior can have a deleterious effect on health, and how a change in behavior can be beneficial, either preventatively or therapeutically. The domain of clinical investigation then translates this knowledge into clinical interventions on a patient-by-patient basis. The third domain takes the broad view of how behavioral medicine can impact public health, and the system-wide/public education and advocacy/political activities that are needed to facilitate maximum benefits at the global level. It can immediately be seen from these brief descriptions of these domains that behavioral medicine is indeed a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field. Researching mechanisms of action requires a detailed knowledge of human biology, starting from the molecular genetic level and progressing to fully interacting body systems. A thorough understanding of environmental interactions with biological functioning is also necessary.The domain of basic research and clinical investigation are linked by the increasingly important concept of Translational Medicine, i.e., how to translate our mechanistic knowledge and understanding into successful clinical interventions most effectively and efficiently. The final challenge is to address these interventions at the public health level. It can therefore be seen that a very wide range of basic scientists, clinicians (physicians, nurses, and other allied health professionals), epidemiologists, and public policy experts contribute to the field of behavioral medicine.