Health psychology: Psychosocial and biobehavioral aspects of chronic disease management

Psychosocial factors appear to impact upon the development and progression of such chronic diseases as coronary heart disease, cancer, and HIV/AIDS. S imilarly, psychosocial interventions have been shown to improve the quality of life of patients with established disease and seem to influence biologi cal processes thought to ameliorate disease progression. Small-scale studie s are useful for specifying the conditions under which psychosocial factors may or may not impact quality of Life, biological factors, and disease pro gression. They are also useful for informing us about the conditions under which psychosocial interventions can serve as adjuvants (e.g. adherence tra ining) to medical treatments. Only large-scale clinical trials, however, ca n determine the extent to which these psychosocial interventions may impact morbidity and mortality.