Methods and Applications
This chapter focuses on clinical trial design issues that are particularly relevant to behavioral medicine research. It highlights the importance of matching the design of a trial to its primary aims. This leads the discussion, in some cases, away from traditional treatment efficacy designs and toward other approaches. For example, it shows that standard efficacy designs are not necessarily optimal...
This chapter discusses how medical illness can influence outcomes in standard randomized controlled trial (RCT) methodology. We review how medical illness can affect the occurrence, identification, and measurement of psychiatric disorders and how medical illness and environmental factors can affect psychiatric symptoms longitudinally over the course of an RCT. Finally, we argue that when outcomes...
This chapter discusses the relevance of quality of life (QOL) research for clinical care and research. It begins by describing the evolution of the theoretical scope of QOL research, extending from theories in psychology and other social sciences. It then highlights methodological challenges with evaluating change in QOL, with a particular focus on how these challenges may be mitigated by incorporating...
This chapter reviews the existing evidence base for behavioral interventions in relation to the prevention and management of chronic diseases. We focus primarily on the key lifestyle and self-care behaviors – dietary behaviors, exercise, smoking, and disease management behaviors – that are causally linked to circulatory and related conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and respiratory...
Psychosocial–behavioral interventions have a potential role in the management of chronic disorders such as coronary heart disease (CHD), cancer, and HIV/AIDS. These interventions have already been shown to improve the quality of life of patients with established disease and seem to influence biological processes thought to ameliorate disease progression. Recently, randomized clinical trials have begun...
Relative to other channels, the Internet and other interactive communication technologies have the potential of providing greater numbers of individuals with effective behavioral health interventions at a low cost. Achieving this potential requires an understanding of these technologies – who uses them, how they are used – and an understanding of the active elements of interventions created for these...
Population-wide health behavior change represents our single greatest hope for improving the health of the nation, reducing the nation’s untenable financial burden, and reducing growing disparities in disease and health status. It will require linking evidence-based individual-level clinical interventions with evidence-based community/public health interventions. (Although we focus on the United States...
The assessment of biological parameters in relation to psychosocial, emotional, and behavioral factors is a cornerstone of behavioral medicine. This chapter provides an introduction to the use of biological variables, focusing on their measurement in three principle settings: epidemiological and population studies, psychophysiological stress testing in the laboratory or clinic, and naturalistic and...