Innovative approaches to health psychology

This book demonstrates how health psychology has risen to the challenge to find new ways to reach and treat at-risk populations. Using as a springboard their experiences in responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis over nearly two decades, chapter authors 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 intervention to target individuals, families, small groups, and communities. They share guidance for 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 for addressing a wide range of public health concerns, from sexually transmitted diseases to coping with chronic illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved).