An impressive body of research gathered over the past three decades supports the incorporation of a number of """"""""mind-body"""""""" (e.g., behavioral medicine, psychosocial) approaches in the prevention and treatment of numerous health-related problems. (I) However, despite what is in a number of cases moderate to strong levels of evidence (based on systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials), mind-body interventions appear to have remained largely at the margins of conventional or mainstream medical practice. (2) An important step in developing and eventually testing strategies and interventions designed to change particular practice patterns is first to explore what the specific nature of the obstacles and barriers to such behavioral changes might be. (3-6) The goal therefore of the proposed studies is to examine factors that might account for the medical community's resistance to incorporating mind-body principles and approaches into clinical practice.
The specific aims of the proposed studies will be to a) identify personal, demographic, and social-environmental factors that facilitate or inhibit the use of mind-body therapies (MBTs) by physicians; and, b) examine personal, demographic, and social-environmental factors that might account for greater openness to mind-body principles and practices among physicians and physicians-in-training. A secondary aim of these studies will be to examine the extent to which medical education plays a facilitative or inhibitory role in shaping future physicians' attitudes toward and adoption of mind-body principles and practices.
These specific aims will be carried out through the use of national surveys of physicians and physicians- in-training, focus groups, and in-depth interviews.
| Sierpina, Victor; Levine, Ruth; Astin, John et al. (2007) Use of mind-body therapies in psychiatry and family medicine faculty and residents: attitudes, barriers, and gender differences. Explore (NY) 3:129-35 |
| Astin, John A; Soeken, Karen; Sierpina, Victor S et al. (2006) Barriers to the integration of psychosocial factors in medicine: results of a national survey of physicians. J Am Board Fam Med 19:557-65 |
| Astin, John A; Goddard, Thomas G; Forys, Kelly (2005) Barriers to the integration of mind-body medicine: perceptions of physicians, residents, and medical students. Explore (NY) 1:278-83 |
