Main description:

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and worldwide. It is well recognized that traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease have limited predictive utility in the identification of new cardiovascular disease cases and outcomes. Thus, investigators have argued that application of a biopsychosocial research paradigm in this field may be of particular utility in understanding cardiovascular disease pathogenesis. Accordingly, a subdiscipline within the field of behavioral medicine - cardiovascular behavioral medicine - examines interrelations among biological, behavioral, psychological, social, and environmental factors in cardiovascular health and disease.

In 1989, Schneiderman and colleagues published a seminal work entitled "Research Methods in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine." Since that time, there has been an exponential increase in the amount and scope of work in this topic area, but no similar edited volume has been undertaken. The present handbook provides a compendium of work in the field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine, the purposes of which are to summarize research in this area, promote transdisciplinary research and clinical practice, and encourage researchers and clinicians to consider all relevant facets of the disease process in their evaluation and study of cardiovascular disease pathogenesis and outcomes.

This handbook has four sections: Section I provides perspectives on the past, present, and future of cardiovascular behavioral medicine, an overview of basic cardiovascular anatomy and physiology, cardiovascular disease classification, and application of the biopsychosocial model to the study of cardiovascular disease. Section IIcovers risk factors for cardiovascular disease from a behavioral medicine perspective, including sociodemographic, behavioral, psychosocial, biomedical, psychophysiological, and environmental risk factors for cardiovascular disease.These chapters offer a discussion of construct definitions, measurement issues, and epidemiological evidence for relations to cardiovascular disease. Section III offers review of multi-level influences in specific cardiovascular disease entities, the evidence- base for relevant biopsychosocial interventions, evaluation of the impact of cardiovascular diseases on behavior, and consideration of common co-morbidities. Section IV covers select statistical and bioethical topics relevant to the field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine.

This volume is unique in several respects. First, there is no similar work available in terms of the scope of topic coverage. Second, the inclusion of relevant measurement issues and construct definitions of a comprehensive set of risk factors will be of great assistance to researchers and clinicians in this area who wish to improve their assessment of these variables yet are not familiar with or trained in the various methodologies. Third, the use of multidisciplinary contributors enhances the utility of the work. Representative disciplines include psychology, psychiatry, medicine (e.g., cardiology), nursing, epidemiology, and public health. The primary audiences for this work are researchers, clinicians, and students in each of these disciplines.

Contents:

Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine: Past, Present, and Future.- Introduction to Cardiac Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathophysiology.- Classification of Cardiovascular Diseases: Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Treatment.- The Biopsychosocial Perspective on Cardiovascular Disease.- Childhood Factors in Adult Risk for Cardiovascular Disease.- Aging Changes in Cardiovascular Structure and Function .- Risk Factors for Ischemic Heart Disease in Women.- Stress and Heart Disease in Women: The Stockholm Women's Intervention Trial in Coronary Heart Disease Study.- From Race to Racism in the Study of Cardiovascular Disease: Concepts and Measures.- Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Disease.- Health Disparities and Cardiovascular Diseases.- Nicotine Dependence and Cardiovascular Diseases: Biobehavioral and Psychosocial Correlates.- Alcohol and the Cardiovascular System: Implications for Behavioral Medicine.- Impact of Specific Diets and Nutritional Supplements on Cardiovascular Diseases.- Understanding Obesity and Cardiometabolic Risk.- Physical Activity/Exercise and Cardiovascular Disease.- Sleep as a Biobehavioral Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease.- Methodological Challenges in the Measurement of Medication Adherence in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease.- Personality Factors in Cardiovascular Disease: The Big Five and Type D Personality.- Hostility and Health.- Negative Emotions: Depression, Exhaustion, Anxiety.- Positive Psychological Well-Being and Cardiovascular Disease.- Stress and the Development of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.- Work and Cardiovascular Diseases.- Social Support and Cardiovascular Disease: Racism, Ethnic Discrimination, and Cardiovascular Health: Conceptual and Measurement Issues.- Religion, Spirituality and Cardiovascular Disease.- Aggregation of Psychosocial Risk Factors: Models and Methods.- Contexts and Cardiovascular Health.- Environmental Toxicants and Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine.- Genetics in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine.- Hypertension.- The Measurement of Lipids and Lipoproteins in Behavioral Medicine Research.- Insulin, Glucose, and the Metabolic Syndrome in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine.- Inflammation, Atherosclerosis, and Psychological Factors.- Hemostasis and Endothelial Function.- Catecholamines and Catecholamine Receptors in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine.- The Assessment of Autonomic Influences on the Heart Using Impedance Cardiography and Heart Rate Variability.- Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical Axis.- Ambulatory Monitoring and Ecological Momentary Assessment.- Cardiovascular Reactivity and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease.- Neuroimaging and the Study of Cardiovascular Stress Reactivity.- Asymmetric Innervation of the Heart.- Biopsychosocial Factors in Coronary Artery Disease.- Chest Pain: Cardiac and Non.- Mental Stress-Induced Myocardial Ischemia: Prevalence, Clinical Significance and Treatment Implications.- Acute Behavioral and Psychosocial Triggers of Myocardial Infarction.- Cardiac Arrythmias and Sudden Cardiac Death.- Behavioral Medicine Treatments for Heart Failure.- Stroke and Carotid Artery Disease.- Congenital Heart Disease.- Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: Psychosocial Dimensions of a Surgical Procedure.- Heart Transplantation .- Measuring Behavioral Outcomes in Cardiac Rehabilitation.- The Psychological Treatment of Cardiac Patients.- Quality of Life and Subjective Health: Strengthening the Subjective Perspective in Cardiology.- Cardiovascular Disease and Cognitive Function.- Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease.- HIV-1 Spectrum Disease, Psychological Distress and Cardiometabolic Disease.- Measurement of Change.- Causal Modeling: Confounding, Mediation, Moderation, and some General Considerations in Regression Modeling.- Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis in Behavioral Medicine.- Ethical Issues in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research.