Behavioral Medicine

Behavioral medicine integrates biological, behavioral, psychological and social science knowledge relevant to health and illness, drawing on epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, physiology, pharmacology, nutrition, neuroanatomy, endocrinology and immunology. It is often used interchangeably with health psychology, though the two are not quite the same: behavioral medicine encompasses health psychology plus applied psychophysiological therapies such as biofeedback and hypnosis, aspects of occupational therapy, rehabilitation medicine, physiatry and preventive medicine, while health psychology emphasizes psychology's own specific role within that wider field. The field has grown more relevant as many leading causes of modern illness and death, including smoking, sedentary living and substance use disorders, are primarily behavioral rather than purely medical in origin, and its practitioners, who include nurses, social workers, psychologists and physicians, act as behavioral change agents. Behavioral medicine works through the biopsychosocial model rather than the purely biological medical model, folding psychological and social elements into its approach to disease rather than relying only on biological deviation from normal functioning.