Introduction

Behavioral medicine is "an approach to illness states which utilizes assessment techniques to evaluate affective, cognitive, psychophysiologic, behavioral, and environmental aspects of illness and encompasses treatment techniques with a predominantly psychobehavioral component". Intervention techniques in behavioral medicine are based on the principles of learning theory. Behavioral intervention is useful for treating many physical, psychological, and psychophysiological disorders. The techniques of behavior modification include progressive relaxation, biofeedback, desensitization, flooding, modeling, aversive therapy, thought stopping, and social skills training. The way people cope with stress definitely affects their lifestyles and, hence, their potential state of health. Stress is greater under conditions of helplessness, where only the futility of action is perceived. In the beginning, behavioral techniques belonged to the domain of clinical psychologists, but they are suitable for application to many medical disorders and to behaviors with health consequences that are not classified as medical disorders by themselves.