Bryan Davis, PsyD, MS: Behavioral Health and CMNI in Treating MS

“What the results of my study have shown is that adherence to traditional masculinity norms; we found associations with higher disability status, increased risk of health behaviors, lower levels of psychical health scores. These are a really big deal.”

The Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center has been at the forefront in advocating and pushing for behavioral health medicine in all areas of multiple sclerosis (MS) treatment. It is the only facility in the world that has a housed behavior health clinic within its walls, which speaks to the facility’s progressiveness in care strategies as well as about how others may not value it as highly.

Bryan Davis, PsyD, MS, clinical health psychology fellow, Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research, Cleveland Clinic, has been advocating for more use of behavioral health worldwide, along with the use of the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (CMNI) tool. A recent project of his was featured as 1 of the Top 10 research projects this year by the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) and aims to learn more about how masculinity norms affect MS care, and ultimately improve it for the long term.

Currently, CMNI is an underutilized tool that is not incorporated into the standard care for MS patients. In an interview with NeurologyLive, Davis stresses the potential for both behavioral health and CMNI, and how they can both be vital methods of improving MS care.