Book Description

In an era of vaccinations, angioplasty, and gene therapy, is there any need for behavioral change in improving health? Is the role of the clinical, counseling, and health psychologist becoming obsolete? Quite the contrary. As Margaret A. Chesney and Michael H. Antoni demonstrate in Innovative Approaches to Health Psychology, the opportunity for clinical, counseling, and health psychologists to increase the scope of their practice and their contribution to research is more vital than ever. As medicine advances, risky behaviors rise, as does noncompliance with medical regimens and the incidence of more drug-resistant strains of viruses. This fascinating book demonstrates how health psychology has risen to the challenge to find new ways to reach and treat at-risk populations. Using their experiences in responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis over nearly two decades, leading experts in health psychology and clinical psychology illustrate how they identified avenues for intervention and new targets for behavior change and designed new methods to address critical problems. Each chapter presents the theoretical rationale for a host of strategies, empirical validation for the effectiveness with a specific population or presenting problem, and step-by-step procedures for implementation. Experts demonstrate how basic behavioral science principles were used to develop interventions to assist individuals, families, small groups, and communities. They also share valuable lessons in treating chronic pain, sleep disturbance, noncompliance with complex medical regimens, and the miracle cure/quick fix mentality. They describe their successes in tailoring interventions to specific risk populations, such as adolescents, pregnant women, African American women, gay men, and IV drug users. These findings are invaluable in addressing a range of public health concerns, from sexually transmitted diseases to coping with chronic disease.