Bücher der Reihe Perspectives on Behavioral Medicine Series

This volume reviews the kinds of advances in technology and methodology that make possible improved assessment, monitoring, and research in behavioral medicine. For researchers and practitioners in clinical psych, neuropsychology, and behavioral medicine

Smoking, diet, stress, coping, and exercise, among other behaviors and psychological states, are now clearly implicated in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Prevention, based largely on altering behaviors that contribute to this chronic disease, is now as important a goal as is treatment of those already afflicted. This volume, based on a recent meeting of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, addresses several important areas of research in the general area of cardiovascular disease. The topics covered reflect on important aspects of this phenomenon, such as the long-term development of coronary artery disease; central nervous system (CNS) regulation of blood pressure, heart rate, and sympathetic tone playing a pivotal role in sympathetic activity and hypertension; learned blood pressure modulation and baroreceptor activation as a means of reducing the aversiveness of stress or noxious stimulation; and the notion that symptoms of heart disease or infarction may occur in the absence of organic heart disease. Having been impressed by the recent advances in the field, the editors of this book capture the wealth of newly acquired knowledge about behavioral factors in cardiovascular disease and how the body''s nervous, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems work together.

The lack of balance and the failure of regulation in life has traditionally been recognized in such extreme symbolic acts as overconscientiousness or a criminal lack of conscience. This volume shows how the neurotic process affects biologic functions, distorting natural functioning. Three distinct functions and their respective extremes are discussed: eating (obesity, bulimia nervosa), sleeping (insomnia, excessive somnolence), and sex (hypersexuality including child molestation, hyposexuality including inhibited sexual desires).