Behavioral Medicine - AARBA

Director

dr. Marco Otto Maria Toscano
Director of the psychiatric service of diagnosis and treatment – Local Health and social care services of Rho
Phone +39 02 994302311
E-mail mtoscano@asst-rhodense.it

Behavioral Medicine is a field of research and multidisciplinary application that integrates the biomedical and behavioral knowledge in order to understand and control both health and disease aspects. The conceptual frame of Behavior Analysis therefore applies to prevention, health promotion, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation of patients with both organic and psychiatric diseases. The action can be direct both towards the symptom (eg headache, anxiety, mood disorders, …) and towards the promotion of adaptive behaviors that can promote the welfare of the person (eg: compliance to drug therapy, adoption of healthy lifestyles, …). The scope of the Behavioral Medicine ranges, then, from the research on the interaction between biobehavioral and psychological processes, up to the clinic and to public health interventions.

Suggested reading

  • Proposal for an update of the definition and scope of Behavioral Medicine written by J. Dekker, A. Stauder, and F. J. Penedo. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (2016), pp 1-4. (read the article)
  • Behavioral Medicine. Assessment and Treatment strategies written by D. M. Doleys, R. I. Meredith, and A. R. Ciminero. Springer editor.

Institutional websites