Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field that utilizes behavior analytic principles and methodology to identify behaviors associated with health and disease states, identify the controlling variables, and increase behaviors associated with improved health outcomes and decrease behaviors associated with illness and disease states. There are myriad studies investigating behavioral interventions to improve behaviors associated with health and disease, including blood glucose monitoring in diabetes, substance use, dietary intake, feeding disorders and food selectivity, disordered eating, sedentary and physical activity, sleeping challenges, dental hygiene, and chronic pain management. Furthermore, behavioral medicine research also targets preventative techniques to avoid health-related issues, such as early screening and self-screening for cancer, following specific recommendations for dietary consumption and physical activity to prevent obesity and other related illnesses, and accident prevention in elderly, pediatric, and work populations. Treatment adherence may also be targeted during routine medical procedures, in continued care for health conditions, such as diabetes, and following injury (e.g., compliance with physical therapy). Behavior analysts are well-equipped to address these problems of public health, yet many studies in behavioral medicine are published outside of behavior analytic journals. The purpose of this symposium is to highlight current and diverse research in the area of behavioral medicine, and to provide attendees an opportunity to hear from established researchers in the field.

Sleep problems are prevalent in typically-developing children and children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders. These problems negatively impact the health and development of youths and present challenges to parents, caregivers, and clinicians. Pharmacological interventions are commonly recommended despite limited research on their efficacy and social acceptability. Behavioral interventions shows merit as a promising alternative but has yet to draw to focus of mainstream treatment providers. We will discuss the assessment and treatment of sleep problems as an area of application of Behavioral Medicine. Efficacy data of behavioral intervention with and without pharmacological intervention on the sleep problems (i.e., sleep onset delay, night and early wakings, and problem behaviors that interfere with sleep) of children diagnosed with and without autism are presented.

Compliance with medical/dental routines is an important part of basic health care for everyone. Many diseases and illnesses are preventable or treatable, but the benefits only accrue if patients cooperate with the procedures involved in the delivery of care. Unfortunately, many children do not cooperate. This presentation will review both the respondent and operant components of medical/dental noncompliance and the common treatments for promoting compliance. The presentation will then review a program of research in applied behavior analysis (both small n and RCT) that follows the development and empirical validation of applications based on negative reinforcement in treatment of noncompliance with routine dental care in every day practice.

The field of behavioral medicine focuses on identifying the variables associated with health and disease states, and manipulating those variables to facilitate change in the behaviors relatedto improved health status. The variety of research within the behavioral medicine field is extensive. However, trends in current publication data suggest much of the research within the field is published outside of behavior analytic fora. The current presentation will review the state of behavioral medicine research in the field of behavior analysis and in other related fields. Data reviewed will focus onpublication trends in behavioral medicine research, provide an overview of health behaviors of interest, offer suggestions for future publications, and emphasize theneed to continue disseminating research both in behavior analyticjournals and conferences.