There has been a paradigm shift in the disease pattern of the society. While the age-old infectious diseases and poverty-related illnesses are still haunting us, there has been sudden upsurge in the lifestyle-related illnesses such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers, trauma and chronic degenerative disorders, which cannot be tackled by biomedical sciences alone. The trauma of a terminally-ill patient, the tale of an ill-fated HIV/AIDS positive individual or even a victim of stress in a fast moving society have their genesis in the behavioural aspects of medicine.

The need for introducing behavioural science components in the curriculum of undergraduate medical students has been keenly felt but hardly implemented. Many of the committees on medical education and other forums have strongly expressed the need for introducing behavioural sciences. A study conducted by the consortium of medical institutions, adopting inquiry-driven strategies for innovation in medical education has clearly revealed that the young graduates are deficient in communication and interpersonal skills, and humanistic aspects of medicine. Though the need for incorporating behavioural sciences has been keenly felt, the attempts to formulate a well-structured programme have been few and sporadic. This is mainly because of dearth of good textbooks and resource materials. The present book is an attempt to bridge this void.

The contents of this book have been divided in six parts. The first part is an introduction to the subject. The second part deals with basis of behaviour, which are core psychological processes that determine human behaviour. These processes like learning, memory, stress are not only relevant to medical practice, but an understanding of these processes can be of great importance to the students themselves. Many psychosocial problems are related to the developmental process; thus, the third part of the book is on development of behaviour from birth to death. A special emphasis is given to adolescence and oldage as these periods are concerned with new emerging specialities: adolescent psychiatry, medicine and geriatrics. A chapter has been devoted to enhance the skills of medical students to deal with difficult situations like dying patients, breaking news of death to the family members and to understand the bereavement process. The fourth part is primarily related to social issues important in patient care, these being the attitudes, family and compliance behaviour. Qualitative as well as quantitative research in any medical speciality often 6borrows methods and tools from behavioural sciences; hence fifth part deals with assessment methods and various psychological methods of management; the most important of these being counselling. A chapter on behavioural medicine has been included, as behavioural methods have been integrated in management of certain disorders. The sixth part deals with special applications of behavioural skills like communication skills, understanding illness behaviour and psychology of pain.

The overwhelming response to the first edition of this book has encouraged me to work for the second edition, which brings additions in some chapters. I hope these additions would be helpful for the students. Behavioural Sciences need human dimensions, thus an attempt has been made to explain the concepts and theories in simple manner. Real case studies with fictitious names have been given in the beginning of each chapter, and clinical applications are discussed to make the students comprehend, relate and use this information in their practical work. It was not feasible to include some other important aspects of health care like economics, ethics, etc. simply to keep the volume of information at a readable level. Again, not much emphasis has been given on latest research finding as the objective of this book is to help the students understand the relevance of behavioural sciences to medicine.

It is impossible to acknowledge all the sources of inspiration and information that I used while writing this book. But first of all, I must thank my patients, whom I have met over the last three decades; the experiences I have gained from them have helped me understand the clinical applications of behavioural sciences. I am also grateful to Professor NN Wig, former Regional Director, WHO, for stimulating my achievement motivation. I am greatly indebted to Mrs Roxana Samuel, Ms Renuka Dutta, Ms Anubha Dhal and my students for the help provided to me, with their valuable suggestions and the editing of this book.

Mrs Nani Gangadharan has painstakingly typed and retyped manuscript of this book, and she deserves my whole-hearted gratitude. I also appreciate the enthusiasm of Sameer and Aditi in making graphic illustrations on computer.

Last but not the least, this work would not have been possible without the patience, support and encouragement that I received from my husband, Dr Anil Mehta and other members of my family.