Biobehavioral Medicine and Health Outcomes – BMHO

Topics

• Studies focusing on behavioral or psychological approaches or responses to physiological or biological conditions, symptoms, or reactions to diseases or disorders.
• Studies focusing on the integration of behavioral and psychological approaches with medical/clinical approaches to improve health and manage disease/disabling conditions (including screening, rehabilitation, post-surgery care, medication adherence, treatment compliance, and symptom management).
• Studies focusing on investigating the role of physical activity, weight control, nutrition, selfregulatory and executive function in disease self-care, and quality of life, particularly when examined in the context of biomarkers and physiological responses to conditions or treatments.
• Studies focusing on behavioral, psychological, pharmacological, or social responses to interventions designed to reduce stress, distress or pain secondary to medical conditions or surgical procedures, including diagnosis or treatment of somatic diseases and conditions.
• Studies focusing on changes in quality of life/well-being and psychosocial adjustment related to biological or physiological diseases or treatments.
• Studies to test relevant applied mHealth and bioinformatic interventions focusing on individual or small group-level behavioral approaches, including adaptive designs and clinical interventions addressing disease management and outcomes with a behavioral/psychological component.

Shared Interests and Overlaps

BMHO and Lifestyle Change and Behavioral Health (LCBH) have shared interests in using behavioral methods to promote health and reduce disease risk at the individual or small group level. Applications that emphasize behavioral and psychological approaches integrated with clinical methods to remedy or slow the progression of disease are reviewed in BMHO. Applications that emphasize the adoption or uptake of behavior change in order to promote health and well-being or reduce health risks are reviewed in LCBH

BMHO and Interdisciplinary Clinical Care in Specialty Care Settings (ICSC) and Clinical Management in General Care Settings (CMGC) have shared interests in management/selfmanagement of acute and chronic illnesses. Applications that propose research projects using person- or patient-targeted psychological, cognitive and behavioral approaches to mitigate disease complications as outcomes are reviewed in BMHO. Applications that emphasize patient behavior and treatment responses with an intent to guide care management or inform clinical practice in the institutional, primary care or general care settings are reviewed in ICSC or CMGC

BMHO and Mechanisms of Emotion, Stress and Health (MESH) have shared interests in stress and pain. Applications that emphasize behavioral, psychological and social factors affecting stress and responses to interventions to reduce pain are reviewed in BMHO. Applications that emphasize basic biological responses to stress and pain and the interplay between stress/emotion and pain are reviewed in MESH

BMHO has shared interests with Interventions to Prevent and Treat Addictions (IPTA) and Addiction Risks and Mechanisms (ARM) in pharmacological and behavioral pain management approaches, especially on opioid use. Applications focused on the clinical use of prescribed opioids for pain management and individuals’ experience and interpretation of pain and quality of life are reviewed in BMHO. Applications focused on the individual-level factors driving opioid abuse or dependence outcomes are reviewed in ARM, and those focused on the treatment of opioid abuse or dependence are reviewed in IPTA

BMHO and Social Psychology, Personality and Interpersonal Processes (SPIP) have shared interests in stress and health- related decision making. Applications that emphasize stress related pain and decisions on slowing the progression of diseases and mitigating medical complications are reviewed in BMHO. Applications that emphasize social aspects of stress, stress resilience and personality characteristics are reviewed in SPIP.

BMHO and Neurobiology of Pain and Itch (NPI) have a shared interest in pain studies. Applications that involve human and/or clinical studies of pain that evaluate psychosocial factors, behavioral interventions and adjunct therapies, rehabilitation and patient outcomes are reviewed in BMHO. Applications that focus on the molecular biology, genetics, anatomy, physiology, imaging, psychophysics of pain, and somatosensory systems in animals and humans are reviewed in NPI.