Mind-Body Health Research

The Mind-Body Health Research Program is housed within the Department of Psychiatry, Texas A&M College of Medicine Education Center at Scott & White. The program is dedicated to research in the area of mind-body interactions in healthcare.

The clinical component of the research program has an emphasis on hypnosis and pain control, cognitive interventions for smoking cessation and other aspects of mind-body interactions in medical care. We are completing a controlled clinical trial into the use of hypnotic relaxation for pain control in cancer patients.

Another area of research includes a of study to determine the severity and affects of anxiety among surgery patients. We are measuring pre- and post-operative anxiety with patients who receive colorectal general surgery. We are assessing the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by inpatients and outpatients in the Department of Psychiatry. We have begun work on the use of hypnosis to ameliorate hot flashes that result from the treatment of breast cancer.

The core research unit includes Dr. Gary Elkins, Director, internationally recognized for his expertise in hypnosis and mind-body interventions. Dr. M. Hasan Rajab, Associate Director, provides expertise in Biostatistics and program evaluation. Our team also includes a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Joel D. Marcus and a number of affiliated faculty. Affiliated faculty are organized in different areas including pain management, smoking cessation research and mind-body interactions in medical care.

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