Key milestones during 40 years of behavioral medicine at the National Institutes of Health

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has played a major role in promoting behavioral medicine research over the past 40 years through funding, review, and priority-setting activities and programs including scientific conferences, meetings, workgroups, intramural research, and training opportunities. In this review of NIH activities in support of behavioral medicine over the past four decades, we highlight key events, programs, projects, and milestones that demonstrate the many ways in which the NIH has supported behavioral and social sciences research and advanced the public health while contributing to the evolution of behavioral medicine as a scientific field.

Progress in health-related behavioral intervention research: Making it, measuring it, and meaning it.

“…It takes many different kinds of studies to improve health outcomes, but rigorous Phase III trials are the definitive testbeds for health-related behavioral interventions; progress toward better outcomes depends on them (Czajkowski et al, 2015(Czajkowski et al, , 2019Mensah & Czajkowski, 2018). They are as essential for making progress in behavioral research as pivotal Phase III trials are in pharmaceutical research (Darrow et al, 2020).…”

Integration of implementation science in cardiovascular behavioral medicine.

“…Cardiovascular behavioral medicine research has made significant advances over the past 50 years (Czajkowski et al, 2019). From the earliest studies showing the role of type A behavior on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk (Rosenman & Friedman, 1977) to more recent discoveries demonstrating the impact of chronic experiences with ethnic and racial discrimination on cardiovascular disease (Brewer & Cooper, 2014), the field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine has led the way in discovery of the fundamental role of behavioral and psychosocial factors on the most common causes of death and disease in the United States.…”