Couples, Illness, and Behavioral Health
Researching the reciprocal relationship between illness and intimacy, Associate Professor Tamara Goldman Sher of IIT Institute of Psychology takes an approach that departs from the standard medical model whereby a disease and its treatment exist between a doctor and patient. Sher takes a biopsychosocial approach, in which a disease is seen as a function of the patient, genetics, the environment, and the person's particular psychological makeup. She is interested in how a chronic illness affects a person's intimate relationship and how that relationship affects the course or outcome of his or her illness. Sher says, "The impact point for students is that illness exists within a context, and that in order to understand this context, one has to understand the relationships of the patient." Sher is the former director of the Behavioral Medicine and Couples Program at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center and now serves as director of clinical training at the institute.As the United States population ages and funding decreases for in-patient stays, families who are caregivers experience heavier burdens. However, Sher is confident that her research will help individuals make and maintain behavioral changes at critical stages in their lives. Sher's dedicated interest in couples research includes how couples are affected by premenstrual syndrome, infertility, and multiple sclerosis, and the development of relationship based interventions for cardiac risk reduction.