Health and Medical Psychology

Health and medical psychology is a field which works at the intersection between medicine and psychology.  It answers questions and provides resources to patients involved in health care and wellness, and to physicians regarding providing health care in an effective manner.  It provides information to patients on how to reduce stress, lose weight, increase exercise, stop smoking, decrease health risks and comply with medications, treatment plans, and follow-up.  It helps physicians with diagnostic formulations by documenting an adequate patient history, patient selection for at-risk surgical procedures, reduction of malpractice, and provides a contact point in complex and problematic cases.

When you take your child for a vaccination health psychologists have determined that distraction is one of the better ways to get your child through the shot.  Telling the child that the shot won't hurt is not effective and undermines confidence in information being provided by the health care provider.

Having patients keep a diary of symptoms to bring into the doctor helps the patient focus on the target symptom and helps the physician look for patterns of symptoms.  It is a frequent treatment plan for chronic pain conditions such as headaches, fluctuations in blood pressure and blood sugar, peak flow values in asthma, and symptoms which are intermittent in nature to collect data to help with medical management.

For people on complex medication "cocktails" having a system of alarms, pill containers for daily medications, and an understanding of the medication, it's use, when it's to be taken and how it's to be taken is essential.  Health psychologists provide the systems and work with the person to put the systems in place that will help with compliance.  They can explain how pharmaceutical medications, herbs, supplements and foods all work together and help the person understand any interactions between them.  They can explain side effects and allergic reactions, and help patients understand risk-benefit issues of medications.

For people with medical symptoms that are unexplained after a few visits to the physician, the health psychologist can provide ways to collect data for symptom reporting to the physician, medical research into a diagnostic decision tree, and psychological support until a diagnosis is reached. They can help the person find support systems including online support groups, local groups and caregiver support groups.  They can help them understand the lab tests, and the medical research involved in their illness or symptoms.

Health and medical psychologists and rehabilitation psychologists work with stroke, heart attack, and head injured individuals to determine best practices in recovery, improving functioning, and explaining what has occurred in non-technical ways.  They help with things like phantom limb pain.  They help clarify what is psychological from what is physical.