Many of the greatest strides in medical care have neither been glamorous nor made the front page of The New York Times. They have been simple measures such as sanitation, immunization, and provision of clean, whole some food. And even more glamorous medical breakthroughs and tech niques like heart transplants are often last-ditch responses to largely preventable medical problems that required a lifetime to develop. Chang ing those life styles which may cause, worsen, or exacerbate disease and uti lizing current medical knowledge may be the most important strides medicine will make in the next few decades. To meet this challenge, tech niques have already been developed to change eating and nutritional pat terns that may lead to obesity and heart disease. In addition, interventions are being developed for a wide variety of medical problems. Many of these techniques are based on behavioral principles. Several years ago, one of the editors of this book gave a behavioral medi cine seminar for psychiatry residents concerning behavioral principles and their application to medicine. As the seminar developed, it became evident that many of the important articles on the subject were scattered through out a wide body of literature, which encompassed a variety of disciplines and journals. No single source was available to provide the state of the art of this emerging field. This book was spawned, in part, as an attempt to overcome this deficit.

Many of the greatest strides in medical care have neither been glamorous nor made the front page of The New York Times. They have been simple measures such as sanitation, immunization, and provision of clean, whole some food. And even more glamorous medical breakthroughs and tech niques like heart transplants are often last-ditch responses to largely preventable medical problems that required a lifetime to develop. Chang ing those life styles which may cause, worsen, or exacerbate disease and uti lizing current medical knowledge may be the most important strides medicine will make in the next few decades. To meet this challenge, tech niques have already been developed to change eating and nutritional pat terns that may lead to obesity and heart disease. In addition, interventions are being developed for a wide variety of medical problems. Many of these techniques are based on behavioral principles. Several years ago, one of the editors of this book gave a behavioral medi cine seminar for psychiatry residents concerning behavioral principles and their application to medicine. As the seminar developed, it became evident that many of the important articles on the subject were scattered through out a wide body of literature, which encompassed a variety of disciplines and journals. No single source was available to provide the state of the art of this emerging field. This book was spawned, in part, as an attempt to overcome this deficit.

Many of the greatest strides in medical care have neither been glamorous nor made the front page of The New York Times. They have been simple measures such as sanitation, immunization, and provision of clean, whole some food. And even more glamorous medical breakthroughs and tech niques like heart transplants are often last-ditch responses to largely preventable medical problems that required a lifetime to develop. Chang ing those life styles which may cause, worsen, or exacerbate disease and uti lizing current medical knowledge may be the most important strides medicine will make in the next few decades. To meet this challenge, tech niques have already been developed to change eating and nutritional pat terns that may lead to obesity and heart disease. In addition, interventions are being developed for a wide variety of medical problems. Many of these techniques are based on behavioral principles. Several years ago, one of the editors of this book gave a behavioral medi cine seminar for psychiatry residents concerning behavioral principles and their application to medicine. As the seminar developed, it became evident that many of the important articles on the subject were scattered through out a wide body of literature, which encompassed a variety of disciplines and journals. No single source was available to provide the state of the art of this emerging field. This book was spawned, in part, as an attempt to overcome this deficit.

Many of the greatest strides in medical care have neither been glamorous nor made the front page of The New York Times. They have been simple measures such as sanitation, immunization, and provision of clean, whole some food. And even more glamorous medical breakthroughs and tech niques like heart transplants are often last-ditch responses to largely preventable medical problems that required a lifetime to develop. Chang ing those life styles which may cause, worsen, or exacerbate disease and uti lizing current medical knowledge may be the most important strides medicine will make in the next few decades. To meet this challenge, tech niques have already been developed to change eating and nutritional pat terns that may lead to obesity and heart disease. In addition, interventions are being developed for a wide variety of medical problems. Many of these techniques are based on behavioral principles. Several years ago, one of the editors of this book gave a behavioral medi cine seminar for psychiatry residents concerning behavioral principles and their application to medicine. As the seminar developed, it became evident that many of the important articles on the subject were scattered through out a wide body of literature, which encompassed a variety of disciplines and journals. No single source was available to provide the state of the art of this emerging field. This book was spawned, in part, as an attempt to overcome this deficit.

Behavioral medicine emerged in the 1970s as the interdisciplinary field concerned with the integration of behavioral, psychosocial, and biomedical science knowledge relevant to the understanding of health and illness, and the application of this knowledge to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. Recent years have witnessed an enormous diversification of behavioral medicine, with new sciences (such as genetics, life course epidemiology) and new technologies (such as neuroimaging) coming into play. This book brings together such new developments by providing an up-to-date compendium of methods and applications drawn from the broad range of behavioral medicine research and practice. The book is divided into 10 sections that address key fields in behavioral medicine. Each section begins with one or two methodological or conceptual chapters, followed by contributions that address substantive topics within that field. Major health problems such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, HIV/AIDs, and obesity are explored from multiple perspectives. The aim is to present behavioral medicine as an integrative discipline, involving diverse methodologies and paradigms that converge on health and well being.

Americans are "healing themselves" (Heckler, 1985) and prevention has taken root (McGinnis, 1985a). We are altering our lifestyle to reduce physical and mental health risks. Perhaps as important is the fact that the science of prevention is beginning to catch up with the practices of prevention, although some might argue that the popularity of these practices far outstrips sound theoretical and empirical foundations. The chapter authors in this volume examine the theoretical and empirical foundations of many current prevention practices and, where data exist, discuss the status of prevention efforts. Where substantial prevention is not yet on the horizon, the authors attempt to point us in the right direction or at least share with the reader some of the risk factors that should be addressed in our research. We hope that readers will be stimulated to discuss the issues raised, advance the current research, and, where possible, adopt the prevention and health promotion strategies that are supported by sound theoretical and empirical work. This volume can in no way be comprehensive with respect to the current work in prevention; however, we hope that we have provided a sampling of prevention activities and issues that appear together in one volume for perhaps the first time. The primary intent of this volume is modest, and the reader should not attempt to find continuity among the various chapters. The only binding among these contributions is their focus on prevention.

As in any field of clinical or scientific endeavor, a cataloguing of the techniques and findings of behavioral pediatrics must follow shortly after the first few years of systematic work. This book has been designed to serve this initial summary function for the field. It represents a first attempt to bring together in one place the definition and scope of be havioral pediatrics and to outline current research and treatment ap proaches to various organic disorders, clinical settings, and problem areas in which a sufficient body of knowledge has accrued for author itative statement. As the first text in a rapidly expanding area, our decisions regarding the topics to be covered and the contributors to this volume were guided by our desire to represent what we would consider to exemplify the field in its early development: pragmatic and thorough study of signif icant problems from a base of sound scientific inquiry. Each of the topics addressed in the present volume develops, in a preliminary fashion, an epistemology for current practice and future study. All of the contrib uting authors have been involved in the development of their specialty areas through their research and, importantly, through their clinical work in the hospitals affiliated with the medical schools in which they hold appointments.