Behavioral Medicine: An Evidence-Based Biobehavioral Approach

This ambitious book provides the latest research in leading topics of behavioral medicine and evidence-based strategies for its application in solving clinical problems. Each of the book’s clinical chapters, covering a breadth of topics from doctor-patient communication to patient adherence, preparation for surgery and cancer, begins with a clinical case study that guides the reader through the chapter.  The author expertly takes the reader through relevant background information, including the epidemiology and medical background of the disease, the psychological predictors of onset or prognosis in the condition, and relevant psychological interventions. The chapters conclude by revisiting the case study with an evidence-based solution that applies the topics discussed to better treat the patient’s body and mind.

Included among the topics:

• Models of stress and methodological considerations in behavioral medicine
• Doctor-patient communication and increasing patient adherence
• Psychosocial factors in coronary heart disease
• Psychosocial factors and the prognosis of cancer
• Psychological aspects of health and illness in the elderly
• Emergency mental health after traumatic events

Yori Gidron is a leading investigator and currently serves as a Chair of Psycho-oncology, at University of Lille, France.  He received his Bachelor’s degree at Haifa University, Israel, and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in experimental (health) psychology from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. He has taught behavioral medicine in three medical schools in three countries, namely Ben-Gurion University in Israel; University of Southampton, UK; and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. His research has focused on psychological risk factors in coronary heart disease and cancer prognosis, models of stress and coping, psychoneuroimmunology of coronary heart disease and cancer, neuroimmunomodulation of diseases, and interventions in coronary heart disease and emergency mental health. He works closely with biologists and physicians, for the benefit of enhancing understanding and treatment of diseases via psychoneuroimmunological knowledge and pathways. Today, his work spans across foLr domains: the modulatory role of the vagal nerve in cancer and chronic diseases; the role of hemispheric lateralization in health and disease; effects of psychological inoculation on health promotions; and a neuroscience-based method to prevent PTSD.