Recent trends in behavioral medicine.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field, integrating research from a variety of disciplines. This review focuses on recent advances and developments in behavioral medicine.

RECENT FINDINGS

Stress, as well as having a role in the etiology and maintenance of somatic disease and somatoform disorders, is an important factor in the behavioral medicine literature. Consequentially, recent advances in psychological interventions targeting these conditions were developed. Furthermore, a variety of psychobiological mechanistic studies investigating the dysregulations of stress axes in conditions relevant to behavioral medicine have been undertaken.

SUMMARY

Studies investigating factors and processes relevant to health and illness clearly demonstrate the impact of psychosocial factors such as stress. The biopsychosocial perspective becomes increasingly sophisticated, focusing on specific disease processes and empirically tested and effective interventions.