Psychoneuroimmunology |
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| Authors: | Robert Ader |
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| Institution: | Center for Psychoneuroimmunology Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York |
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| Abstract: | Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the relationships among behavioral, neural and endocrine, and immune processes. Bidirectional pathways connect the brain and the immune system and provide the foundation for neural, endocrine, and behavioral effects on immunity. Examples of such effects are conditioned and stress-induced changes in immune function and in susceptibility to immunologically mediated diseases. These data indicate that researchers should no longer study the immune system as if it functioned independently of other systems in the body. Changes in immune function are hypothesized to mediate the effects of psychological factors on the development of some diseases, and research strategies for studying the clinical significance of behaviorally induced changes in immune function are suggested. |
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| Keywords: | conditioning immunity stress |
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