Research in the Division of Behavioral Medicine aims to understand the contribution of psychological, psychosocial, and behavioral factors to the onset, progression, and management of physical and mental disease, to identify the relevant pathophysiological mechanisms linking psychological states to disease, and to develop treatment interventions targeting these mechanisms. Projects range from the purely behavioral to the cellular, with new studies extending to gene expression.

Our research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, NARSAD, the March of Dimes, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Nathaniel Wharton Fund. Over many years, Division Chief Dr. Richard Sloan and Dr. Peter Shapiro from Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry have investigated the role the autonomic nervous system as a candidate mechanism linking psychological characteristics of depression and hostility to the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease.

Dr. Catherine Monk’s laboratory investigates the possible effects of pregnant women's stress, anxiety, and depression on fetal and infant development, specifically with respect to the future child's biobehavioral reactivity, affect regulation, and risk for psychopathology. Work by Drs. Felice Tager and Paula McKinley examines the impact of adjuvant chemotherapy on cognitive function in women with breast cancer. Dr. Ethan Gorenstein, along with Dr. Laszlo Papp of the Division of Clinical Therapeutics, investigates the novel treatment approaches to anxiety disorders in older adults. Along with colleagues in the Herbert Irving Cancer Center, Dr. Arlene King examines ethnic disparities in cancer. Dr. Erin Olivo studies the role of integrative medicine in surgery.

Division members Drs. Karina Davidson, Joseph Schwartz, Lynn Clemow, and Matthew Burg, who have their home appointments in the Department of Medicine, collaborate in studies of psychosocial factors in hypertension. Post-doctoral fellow Dr. Olga Shcheslavskaya is developing a research program in cardiovascular psychophysiology.

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