MISSION STATEMENT

The purpose of the Society for Heart-Brain Medicine is to: a) educate clinicians, and scientists about the physiology, pathophysiology and medical aspects of heart-brain interactions; b) educate the public about these aspects; c) promote and foster research into heart-brain relationships.

Until the formation of the Society for Heart-Brain Medicine, no professional organization existed that was devoted exclusively to furthering knowledge of brain-heart relationships. Recent research has expanded our understanding, underlining the need for a forum where researchers and clinicians from different disciplines, both clinical and laboratory, can present, discuss, and evaluate data, and for an organization to promote the study of heart-brain medicine as a discipline in its own right.

Clinically, the need was clear. Three important examples emphasize interactions between the heart, brain and psychological factors:  sudden cardiac death affects more than 300, 000 persons annually in the United States. Recent understanding of the physiology of this disorder has shown that its promoters are not solely intrinsic to the heart but also involve psychological and brain dysfunction (such as emotional stress or neurological disease such as stroke). Secondly, atrial fibrillation is a common irregularity of the heart rhythm that increases in frequency with age and affects more than 160,000 people annually. Approximately one out of every five strokes may be caused by this heart disorder. Studies indicate that the origins of this arrhythmia may not be solely cardiac and that controlling the heart rhythm through the brain may decrease the risk of stroke, and its devastating clinical and socioeconomic impact. Finally, depression may increase the likelihood of the development of a variety of cardiovascular conditions, including ischemic heart disease, cardiac arrhythmias, and stroke.