Nestoriuc, Rief, & Martin (2008)* conducted a meta-analysis of biofeedback applications for tension-type headache (TTH). A meta-analysis combines data from published studies that meet inclusion criteria to increase statistical power and the ability to detect a statistically meaningful treatment effect, often expressed as an "effect size." The researchers provide an overview of TTH and report that episod ...

Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by significant deficits in social skills, attention/concentration, and communication, as well as emotional, cognitive, and behavioral impairments. Examples include Autism, Asperger's Disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. I am not aware of any treatment that can "cure" ASD. Current therapies focus on symptom reduction, beha ...

"Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update" provides healthcare professionals a state of the art, evidenced based presentation of current nicotine/tobacco treatment options for their patients. This excellent free ebook (pdf) spans several hundred pages. ...

As if there were not already enough evidence and reasons to avoid tobacco products, a recent study* revealed that cigarette smoking increased the chance of Major Depression Disorder (MDD) in women.  Researchers compared cigarette use in 165 persons with MDD with over 800 persons without MDD in a case-controlled and retrospective design (uses accumulated data/records) that spanned 10 years.  Exposure to smok ...

Kaiser Permanente is a progressive not-for-profit health plan provider and one of the initial advocates of behavioral health integration into overall primary medical care.  Newly published research* suggests that people who lose weight immediately following Type 2 Diabetes, "insulin resistance," diagnosis realize improved health outcomes, such as reaching blood pressure and blood sugar goals.  Another impor ...

What is neurofeedback? Neurofeedback, also as "neurotherapy" and "EEG biofeedback," has been around since 1960's. In short, neurofeedback teaches self-regulation of deviant brainwave activity. Media attention over the past few years increased due to interest from parents who seek drug free solutions for child behavior problems, especially attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ...

Breathing is something so simple and basic that people seldom give it any thought. The importance of proper breathing should not be underestimated.  Believe it or not, your breathing style significantly impacts how you feel, think, and act.  In fact, researchers* have identified 6 distinctive breathing styles.  Today's post will cover the "incoherent breathing style." ...

A personal friend asked a great question after I told him about The Behavioral Medicine Report: What is Behavioral Medicine? Behavioral Medicine and the related Health Psychology are sub-specialties in psychology.  Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary approach (i.e. utilizes knowledge from different fields of healthcare) to the development and integration of behavioral and biomedical information to t ...

Welcome to The Behavioral Medicine Report. I want to take a moment in my first post to introduce myself and this website. My name is Christopher Fisher, M.A. I have master's degree in Clinical Psychology from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and I am currently a 4th year doctoral student in Clinical Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine at the University of North Texas.  My doctoral program is somewhat uni ...