Preventive and Behavioral Medicine

Clinical and training programs

The Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine provides consultation and treatment services for individuals and families who need to make health-related lifestyle changes, learn how to manage pain or stress, and/or adapt to an illness or disability. These nationally recognized services are provided individually and in groups through the Behavioral Medicine Clinic, the Stress Reduction Clinic, the Clinical Nutrition Services, and the inpatient behavioral medicine consultation liaison service. Areas covered include:

• risk factor reduction and general health promotion (e.g., smoking cessation, diet modification and weight management, stress reduction)
• counseling to enhance the efficacy of medical treatment (e.g., medication and health habit adherence)
• treatment of psychophysiological/stress related disorders (e.g., headaches, panic/hyperventilation, somatization)
• pain management and dealing with adjustment to chronic or serious illness (e.g., cardiac disease, diabetes, cancer, AIDS, pulmonary disease).

Group treatment is offered in areas such as stress reduction, asthma self management, compulsive eating, smoking cessation, and panic disorder. Treatment is generally short term. The Division provides a variety of formal learning opportunities in preventive and behavioral medicine, mind/body medicine, clinical epidemiology, and health services research and evaluation for undergraduate and graduate students, residents and fellows. Clinical and/or research rotations for medical residents are available in cardiovascular and cancer epidemiology and clmical and community interventions for disease prevention and health promotion.

Clinical skills also can be enhanced through the Division’s Behavioral Medicine Clinic, the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (CFM), and its Stress Reduction Clinic. Post-doctoral training as well as opportunities to obtain a Master's degree in Public Health are available.

Research

Members of the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine conduct research in the epidemiology, prevention, and management of chronic disease. These range from small clinical studies to multicenter collaborative trials. Since 1983 the Division has had numerous projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, and by other agencies including the Army, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Nathan J. Cummings Foundation. The areas of investigation include:

• studies of women’s health, dietary habits and the effect of specific nutrients on cancer risk
• community and health services studies of cancer screening participation
• the role of stress reduction in various diseases, including cancer, and in non-healthcare environments such as prisons, academic and corporate institutions
• cost effectiveness studies of lifestyle interventions
• health systems and policy studies
• health services quality process and outcome measurement
• factors affecting behavior change and adaptation to chronic disease
• the training of physicians and other healthcare providers in using effective interventions for health behavior change, and worksite and community intervention studies.