The Behavioral Medicine Research Council: Its origins, mission, and methods

Abstract

The Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC) is a new, autonomous joint committee of 4 of the leading behavioral medicine research organizations, including the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the American Psychosomatic Society, the Society for Health Psychology, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. The BMRC's work has important implications for the science and practice of behavioral medicine. The distinguished senior scientists who comprise this new committee will identify a series of strategic research goals for behavioral medicine and promote systematic, interdisciplinary efforts to achieve them. This special report discusses the developments that led to the formation of the BMRC, describes the BMRC's mission, and explains the methods that its members will use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1.

Treatment implications of strong vs. weak linear relationships between a behavioral risk marker and an adverse medical event such as an acute myocardial infarction. In a hypothetical behavioral intervention trial, the average baseline score on the behavioral risk measure (black line) is 70. If the comparison group does not improve and the intervention group improves by 10 points on average (green line), the intervention would yield (at best) a 4–5 percent decrease in adverse events if the risk marker is strongly related to the clinical outcome, and a mere 1–2 percent decrease if the marker is weakly related to the outcome. The green shaded areas represent the decrements in adverse outcomes.

Figure 2.

Treatment implications of strong vs. weak linear relationships between a behavioral risk marker and an adverse medical event such as an acute myocardial infarction. In a hypothetical behavioral intervention trial, the average baseline score on the behavioral risk measure (black line) is 70. If the comparison group does not improve and the intervention group improves by 30 points on average (green line), the intervention would yield (at best) about a 17 or 18 percent decrease in adverse events if the risk marker is strongly related to the clinical outcome, and about a 3–5 percent decrease if the marker is weakly related to the outcome. The green shaded areas represent the decrements in adverse outcomes.

Figure 3.

Treatment implications of a curvilinear relationship between a behavioral risk marker and an adverse medical event such as an acute myocardial infarction. In a hypothetical behavioral intervention trial, the average baseline score on the behavioral risk measure (black line) is 95. If the comparison group does not improve and the intervention group improves by 5 points on average (green line), the intervention would yield (at best) about a 36 or 37 percent decrease in adverse events. The green shaded areas represent this decrement.