title: Lessons from social network analyses for behavioral medicine.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study presents an overview of the rapidly expanding field of social network analysis, with an emphasis placed on work relevant to behavioral health clinicians and researchers. I outline how social network analysis is a distinct empirical methodology within the social sciences that has the potential to deepen our understanding of how mental health and addiction are influenced by social environmental factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Whereas there have been a number of recent studies in the mental health literature that discuss social influences on mental illness and addiction, and a number of studies looking at how social networks influence health and behaviors, there are still relatively few studies that combine the two. Those that have suggest that mood symptoms as well as alcohol consumption are clustered within, and may travel along, social networks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social networks appear to have an important influence on a variety of mental health conditions. This avenue of research has the potential to influence both clinical practice and public policy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. jrosenquist@partners.org
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Rosenquist
mesh_terms: D001524:Behavioral Medicine; D035841:Behavioral Research; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D012944:Social Support