37 - Environmentaland behavioral interventions

Summary

This chapter outlines general principles important to the development and implementation of behavioral and environmental interventions. It suggests approaches applicable to the use of behavioral and environmental interventions to treat challenging behaviors across the spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders. A functional behavioral assessment is a problem solving process that relies on a variety of techniques and strategies to identify the purposes of a specific behavior. Stimulus control is an intervention aimed at modulating the frequency of antecedent behaviors. Meta-analytic studies and systematic reviews have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective for management of pain. CBT is the most commonly used non-pharmacologic treatment for anxiety disorders. Social skills training (SST) is a behavioral intervention that focuses on social functioning, with an emphasis on practicing the pragmatic skills of living. Executive functions include integrative, higher-level cognitive processes by which individuals monitor and regulate the orderly execution of goal directed behavior.