Family medicine: behavioral science contributions.

The trend in medicine has been towards specialization which promotes a philosophy that extensive knowledge of a limited field is necessary for competence. Little emphasis has been placed on behavioral sciences as an important aspect for assisting the specialty physician in dealing with patients. Family medicine reverses this trend by emphasizing a breadth of medical knowledge with inclusion of behavioral sciences as a part of training. Behavioral sciences contribute heavily to the education of the family physician in the areas of character, culture, and counseling. The results is a humanistic physician with excellent skills in patient management. The inclusion of behavioral sciences in family medicine places this specialty at the forefront of a new direction in medicine and may well be emulated by other medical specialties.