Behavioral Clinical Trials for Chronic Diseases

Linda Powell, PhD is chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and the Charles J and Margaret Roberts Professor of Preventive Medicine, Medicine (Cardiology), Behavioral Sciences, and Pharmacology at Rush Medical College. She received her doctoral degree at Stanford University, conducted post-doctoral work in cardiovascular epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco, and began her academic career at Yale University's School of Public Health. Her research interests are dietary and other preventive risk factors in the development of chronic disesaes and problems of older persons, including Alzheimer's disease, cognitive decline, and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Powell is an internationally recognized expert in the conduct of behavioral clinical trials aimed at changing behavior as a way to reduce risk of chronic disease. She is a member of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the American Psychiatric Association.

• Introduction: the window of opportunity.- A selected history of randomized behavioral clinical trials: what we learned.- A clinically significant problem and a clincially significant benefit.- The process of developing a behavioral treatment for chronic disease.- The hypothesized pathway from behavioral treatment to chronic disease.- Equipoise, blinding, and investigator discipline.- Sensitivity to diversity.- Protection of randomization.- Choice of appropriate control group.- Readiness to conduct a behavioral randomized clinical trial.- Concluding remarks.