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Concept
Behavioral medicine
Summary
Behavioral medicine is concerned with the integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness. These sciences include epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, physiology, pharmacology, nutrition, neuroanatomy, endocrinology, and immunology. The term is often used interchangeably, but incorrectly, with health psychology. The practice of behavioral medicine encompasses health psychology, but also includes applied psychophysiological therapies such as biofeedback, hypnosis, and bio-behavioral therapy of physical disorders, aspects of occupational therapy, rehabilitation medicine, and physiatry, as well as preventive medicine. In contrast, health psychology represents a stronger emphasis specifically on psychology's role in both behavioral medicine and behavioral health.
Behavioral medicine is especially relevant in recent days, where many of the health problems are primarily viewed as behavioral in nature, as opposed to medical. For example, smoking, leading a sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol use disorder or other substance use disorder are all factors in the leading causes of death in the modern society. Practitioners of behavioral medicine include appropriately qualified nurses, social workers, psychologists, and physicians (including medical students and residents), and these professionals often act as behavioral change agents, even in their medical roles.
Behavioral medicine uses the biopsychosocial model of illness instead of the medical model. This model incorporates biological, psychological, and social elements into its approach to disease instead of relying only on a biological deviation from the standard or normal functioning.
Writings from the earliest civilizations have alluded to the relationship between mind and body, the fundamental concept underlying behavioral medicine. The field of psychosomatic medicine is among its academic forebears, albeit it now obsolete as an academic discipline.
Official source
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