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Preventive Medicine Special Issues


Since 2014, the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health has partnered with Preventive Medicine to produce a special issue every November focused on behavior change, health, and health disparities. VCBH Director Stephen T. Higgins, PhD serves as editor for these issues and the scientific papers are from researchers that have been hand-selected based on their exemplary contributions to the fields of opioids, tobacco, and treatment and have most recently participated in the Vermont Center on Behavior and Health's annual conference.

November 2023: Tenth Special Issue Released


Preventive Medicine Special Issue, November 2023The November 2023 Special Issue of Preventive Medicine is now available. As a part of the Behavior Series, this Special Issue centers on behavior change, health, and health disparities. VCBH Director Stephen Higgins, PhD acted as guest editor and organized the selection of papers.

The issue, “Behavior change, health, and health disparities 2023: Contingency management for treating substance use disorders and promoting health in vulnerable populations,” includes work from VCBH researchers and annual conference presenters focused on contingency management in the treatment of tobacco, alcohol and opioid use disorders.

“This issue focuses on Contingency Management (CM), a highly efficacious behavior-change intervention for substance use disorders (SUDs) and other behavioral health conditions wherein patients receive material incentives […] contingent on objectively verified behavior change,” says Dr. Higgins in his introduction to the Special Issue. “Despite substantial support for its efficacy, CM remains largely unavailable in U.S. community SUD treatment facilities and other healthcare settings. […] This SI details recent promising developments in efforts to surmount longstanding implementation obstacles while also detailing other promising advances from meta-analyses and controlled trials examining CM's efficacy”.

 

November 2022: Ninth Special Issue Released


Preventive Medicine Special Issue, November 2022The November 2022 Special Issue of Preventive Medicine is now available. The ninth in a series that focuses on behavior change, health, and health disparities, this issue includes select research in the field of tobacco control and regulatory science. VCBH Director Stephen Higgins, PhD organized the selection of papers and acted as guest editor.

The issue, “Behavior Change, Health, and Health Disparities 2022: Innovations in Tobacco Control and Regulatory Science to Decrease Cigarette Smoking,” includes research from VCBH researchers and presenters who participated in the VCBH 9th Annual Conference in October 2021.

“This year we focus on cigarette smoking, which continues to have devastating health impacts including more than 8 million annual premature deaths globally and 480,000 in the U.S. where most of the research reported in this Special Issue was conducted,” said Dr. Higgins. “While the introduction of new tobacco products into the marketplace like electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) demands attention, it is essential that we remain focused on the enormous challenges involved in eliminating cigarette smoking.”

 

November 2021: Eighth Special Issue Released


Preventive Medicine Special Issue 2020We are pleased to announce that the November 2021 Special Issue of Preventive Medicine, edited by VCBH Director Stephen T. Higgins, PhD, is now available. This year's issue is focused on Rural Addiction and Health, an extension of our 8th Annual VCBH Conference that was held in October 2020.

In his editorial, Dr. Higgins notes that this is the third time in our series we have given substantial attention to the opioid epidemic. Despite having made progress in certain areas of addressing the epidemic, it "has continued to evolve over time in ways that introduce new and serious clinical challenges and complexities." 

This year's issue begins by examining the U.S. opioid epidemic through both state and federal lenses and efforts underway to curtail the epidemic in rural states. Additional topics include individuals with OUD and PTSD; polysubstance use in rural and urban settings; expanding treatment access with new medications; and the impact of COVID-19 on treatment in rural settings via telehealth. We also give space to additional rural health disparities such as smoking prevalence; cancer incidence and outcomes; cardiovascular disease and stroke; smoking rates in pregnant women; and weight-loss in those with an affective disorder.

 

Preventive Medicine Seventh Special Issue


VCBH is pleased to announce that the November 2020 Special Issue of Preventive Medicine, edited by Stephen T. Higgins, PhD, is now available. This year's issue highlights some current challenges in tobacco control and regulatory science and features researchers that participated in the VCBH 7th Annual Conference held in October 2019.

Dr. Higgins notes in his editorial, "This 7th issue includes 17 commentaries, reviews, and original empirical studies, 16 of which are devoted to current tobacco control and regulatory science research and policy, topics critically important to protecting the public health from the longstanding and devastating harms of tobacco use. The challenge of balancing efforts to protect youth from e-cigarettes while allowing for evidence-based evaluation of their potential to reduce the harms of cigarette smoking among adults features prominently in many of these contributions, complemented by original studies on rural-urban disparities, tobacco harm perceptions, use patterns and toxin exposure, modeling of tobacco-related mortality, novel tobacco research methods, and reducing cigarette smoking through regulatory policies, including nicotine reduction in cigarettes, and novel clinical interventions."

Preventive Medicine Sixth Special Issue


The November 2019 Special Issue of Preventive Medicine is the sixth in a series that focuses on behavior change, health, and health disparities. 

Select researchers that participated in the 2018 Vermont Center on Behavior and Health 6th Annual Conference were invited to contribute to the Special Issue based on their exemplary scholarship and research on opioids, tobacco, and treatment adherence. VCBH Director, Dr. Stephen Higgins, once again acted as guest editor for the special issue and organized the selection of papers.

Considerable attention is given to the ongoing U.S. opioid epidemic and the critical need to develop clinical infrastructure to meet the growing demand for opioid-related clinical services. Selected papers also address tobacco use and adherence to medical regimens.

Past Special Issues

 

2018: Special Issue: Behavior Change, Health, and Health Disparities
November 2017, Volume 117, Pages 1-114
Edited by Stephen T. Higgins

2017: Special Issue: Behavior Change, Health, and Health Disparities
November 2017, Volume 104, Pages 1-136
Edited by Stephen T. Higgins

2016: Special Issue: Behavior Change, Health, and Health Disparities
November 2016, Volume 89, Pages 1-182
Edited by Stephen T. Higgins

2015: Special Issue: Behavior Change, Health, and Health Disparities
November 2015, Volume 80, Pages 1-106 
Edited by Stephen T. Higgins

2014: Special Issue: Behavior Change, Health, and Health Disparities
November 2014, Volume 68, Pages 1-80
Edited by Stephen T. Higgins

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2012: Supplemental Issue on Incentives and Health
November 2012, Volume 55, Supplement, Pages S1-S124 (1 November 2012) Incentives on Health
Edited by Stephen T. Higgins, Kenneth Silverman, Stacey C. Sigmon and Neal A. Naito