Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and most other westernized nations. 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, and social 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. Here we propose to create a compendium of work in the field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine, the purposes of which are to summarize research in this area, promote multidisciplinary 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.

In this volume, we propose several sections. Section I will provide an overview of basic cardiovascular anatomy and physiology, cardiovascular disease classification, and application of the biopsychosocial model to the study of cardiovascular disease. Section II will cover sociodemographic, behavioral, psychosocial, biomedical, and psychophysiological risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Each chapter will offer a discussion of construct definition, measurement issues, and epidemiological evidence for relations to cardiovascular disease. Chapters on biomedical and psychophysiological risk factors will also describe sociodemographic, behavioral, and psychosocial correlates of these risk factors. Section III will summarize literature on biopsychosocial investigation of specific cardiovascular disease entities, the evidence base for relevant biopsychosocial interventions, and evaluation of the impact of cardiovascular diseases on behavior. Section IV will cover select special topics in the field of cardiovascular behavioral medicine including common comorbidities, special populations, special issues, and data analytic issues.

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 will greatly enhance the utility of the work.

The primary audiences for this work are multidisciplinary researchers, clinicians, and students in cardiovascular behavioral medicine or behavioral medicine more broadly. Representative disciplines include psychology, psychiatry, medicine, nursing, and epidemiology. The prospective authors listed below represent each of these disciplines.

Shari Waldstein, Ph.D. is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She received her masters and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and completed her clinical psychology internship at Brown University, with special training in cardiovascular behavioral medicine. Her research program in cardiovascular behavioral medicine combines conceptual and methodological approaches from behavioral medicine, biomedicine, neuropsychology, and psychophysiology. One area of collaborative investigation examines the impact of cardiovascular risk factors, cardiovascular reactivity, and cardiovascular disease on cognitive function and quality of life among older adults. A second area of investigation involves the study of individual differences in the magnitude and patterning of acute cardiovascular responses to mental stress. Dr. Waldstein is recipient of an Early Career Award from the American Psychosomatic Society (APS), an Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology (Early Career) Award from Division 38 of the American Psychological Association (APA), and a Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM). She is a Fellow of APA Division 38 (Health Psychology), SBM, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. Dr. Waldstein has served as an Associate Editor for the journal Health Psychology, as a member of the APS's Executive Council, as Member-at-Large for Division 38 (Health Psychology) of the APA, and as Chair of the Education and Training Council for the SBM's Board of Directors. Currently, she is president-elect of the American Psychosomatic Society. She has edited one book and has authored or co-authored 54 articles and book chapters.

Willem J. (Wijo) Kop, Ph.D. is an associate professor of medicine (Cardiology) and director of the recently developed Behavioral Cardiology Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. His research focuses on cardiovascular diseases and other disorders where fatigue plays a major role. Dr. Kop is actively involved in the fields of psychosomatic and behavioral medicine and health psychology. He has served on several NIH review panels and the editorial boards of Health Psychology and Psychosomatic Medicine. Dr. Kop is the recipient of the 1998 Early Career Award of the American Psychosomatic Society and the 2002 Outstanding Contributions to Health Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association.

Edward C. Suarez, Ph.D., M. A is professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center and in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He received his A.B. in Mathematics and Psychology, and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Miami, and a M.A. in Bioethics from Wake Forest University. The focus of his research has been exploring the relation of psychosocial factors, such as hostility, depression, and anger, to established and emerging early risk markers of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, and the moderating influences of gender and race as well as alcohol consumption, family history, socioeconomic status, and physical activity. The focus of his most current projects has been (1) dysregulation of the feedback loop between the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the inflammatory response system, and how dysregulation relates to symptoms of depression and emotional stress responses in men and women, and (2) personalized health planning and mindfulness meditation as interventions for reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes in prediabetic adults. His interest in metabolism has led him to expand his research to the relation of micronutrients to risk of depression and early markers of Type 2 diabetes and how race influences these associations. His work has been supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute from 1988 to 2014. He was the Guest Editor of a Special issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity that focused on the influences of gender, race, and ethnicity on neuroimmune parameters. He has been on the Editorial Boards of numerous journals, a member of various Advisory Boards for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine who awarded him their New Investigator Award in 1989.

William R. Lovallo, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and a Senior Research Career Scientist and Director of the Behavioral Sciences Laboratories at the VA Medical Center in Oklahoma City. He obtained his A.B. in Psychology from UCLA, his M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his Ph.D. in Biological Psychology from the University of Oklahoma. His research concerns cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses to psychological stress, and his most current project is devoted to understanding stress reactivity and emotion regulation in young adults with a family history of alcoholism. His work has been supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He has served as the Associate Director of the MacArthur Research Network on Mind-Body Interactions, and as a Council Member and President of the American Psychosomatic Society. He has been on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychophysiology, Psychosomatic Medicine, the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, and the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, he has served on numerous NIH advisory groups, and he has been a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. His book, Stress & Health: Biological and Psychological Interactions is widely used in psychology, medicine, anthropology, and nursing programs.

Leslie Katzel, M.D., Ph.D. is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. As Associate Director for Clinical of the Baltimore GRECC, Dr. Katzel oversees the GRECC Clinical Demonstration Projects. Dr. Katzel attends on the general medical service at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and is director of the fourth year medical student clinical and research elective in geriatrics and gerontology, as well as director for the research elective in gerontology for medical housestaff. He is recognized for his contributions to the ethical oversight of research conducted at UMB. He lectures frequently on the ethical oversight of research and good clinical practice guidelines, and chairs several safety monitoring boards. At a national level, he serves as a consultant/site visitor for the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP).