Psychoneuroimmunology: interdisciplinary study of psychological and immune interactions

Psychoneuroimmunology is relative recent addition to the field of medicine and uses an interdisciplinary approach to study the relationship between a wide range of interlocking and interrelated systems within the body, including, but not limited to one's psychology, the functioning of one's mind according to what is known in the discipline of neuroscience, and the effects of these systems that can be wrecked upon the immune system or else interact with the immune system in sort of a feedback loop. There are man possible definitions of psychoneuroimmunology, which underlies the fact that it is an interdisciplinary field that is evolving across a wide variety of concepts in a fashion that makes its essence difficult to pin down in a short and pith definition:

Various Definitions of Psychoneuroimmunology: The study of the interaction of behavioral, neural, and endocrine factors and the functioning of the immune system. [3] the study of interactions, bidirectional communication occurring between behavior, brain, the immune and endocrine systems. [4] the best working definition is the one below:

An interdisciplinary science that studies the interrelationships between psychological, behavioral, neuroendocrine processes and immunology.

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Regardless of the exact definition that one employs in attempting to create a rubric that can succinctly and easily define this rapidly expanding, growing, and developing field, the main issues for which one must account include the fact that psychoneuroimmunology accounts for three systems primarily -- the psychology of a person, their neural processes, and the immune system (especially focusing on the endocrine system) -- but that these three systems, while they are at the heart of what psychoneuroimmunology is attempting to accomplish, are not the only ones and psychoneuroimmuology can also consider such systems as the cardiovascular system as well, or else consider a patient's behavior and interactions with others as well. Indeed, the most exciting aspects of the field, however, lay in its very interdisciplinary status in which the study of psyconeuroimmunology attempts to link concepts in several different fields in order to offer more holistic diagnoses that treat the entire symptoms of a patient and address those symptoms at a deeper root that realizes the possible impacts and affects that other important bodily systems can bring to bear on them. In other words, the study of psychoneuroimmunology would consider such issues as how one's psychological state or neurological state might have a profound, deep, and lasting effect on the helath and wellness of one's endocrine system, thus affecting one's overall state of health in relation to the ability of the body to build and maintain essential immuno-resistances that keep patients from being chronically sickened. Similarly, the study would consider such areas in which a patients psychology might similarly be suffering as the result of some sort of problem with the immune response of the body. Certainly, for example, a patient with a chronic immunological problem is likely to feel serious effects such as fatigue and possibly even depression as a result of their state and psychneuroimmunology also provides an area of access in which the vortices of medical cruciality can be analytically examined and reduced to a series of root causes through careful and thorough diagnosis.

Indeed, it is important to remember that the connections between these systems are not some sort of abstract or abstruse series of interactions that are diffuse in meaning or content -- psychoneuroimmunology is not a pseduoscience or some outgrowth of new age medicine, but, in fact, based on real hard science that is empirically verifiable, definable, and demonstrable. Indeed, there are several very direct places in which the central nervous system, for example, connects to the immunological system that can be seen in terms of connections between nerves and these systems:

The connection from the CNS to the IS involves several pathways. The most direct way is that primary (thymus, bone marrow) and secondary (e.g. spleen) lymphoid organs are innervated by noradrenergic nerve fibers [. 27]. The contact between lymphocytes and nerve endings is synaptic-like. In addition, T- and B- lymphocytes, neutrophils, mononuclear cells and NK-cells posses a - and b -adrenoceptors. The function and modulatory effects of noradrenergic innervation on immune functions may differ depending on the types of cells and receptors expressed on the cell surface of these cells and can inhibit as well as stimulate certain immune functions [Madden KS. in. 9].

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So here we see that a second possible route for the immune system to interact with the central nervous system is through a secondary or intermediary connection, being, in this case, the neuroendocrine system. In this approach, the secretions of glands affect the health and well-being of the body. In the particularly useful example that is detailed with above with impressive precision, we can consider the sorts of hormones that are released by the body itself when it is placed under stress. In these instances, glands secrete hormones that are released into the blood stream and can have an impressive and profound effect upon the ways in which the body acts and general feeling of wellness of a patient altogether.

Thus, the basic components of psychoneuroimmunology are not diffuse and abstract concepts that bear no practical bearing upon the functioning of an actual human body, but in fact, are deeply rooted within already well-established parameters surrounding the basic neurological and endocrinological functioning of the body as a body. Indeed, in fact, these connections are so pervasive and important that they essential reveal the underlying necessity for the creation of a science such as psychoneuroimmunology because the interaction between the central nervous system and a body's immune functions are so radically important and interconnected.

Of course, one of the most profound questions that comes out of this particular debate in terms of the effects of stress upon the body, one might wonder why the body would develop a series of responses wherein stress is so effective in terms of causing damage to the immune system of the body. Although this seems initially puzzling, there seems to be a relatively reasonable answer, at least from an evolutionary perspective:

The stress response is also associated with the mobilisation of energy to enable the body to deal with threat or danger... energy is diverted from internal organs to the muscles, heart rate increases, and the body is made ready for physical action and increased sensory performance... This would be a highly adaptive response to short-term stressors in situations where the body could soon resume normal immune functions. It becomes disadvantageous when stress responses are maintained over longer periods of time. This probably occurs to a much greater extent in modern human life than under the natural conditions in which our nervous systems and immune systems evolved.

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So the argument that is deployed in the forgoing suggests that those who, in ancient times, responded to stress by diverting energy away from internal process towards muscular ones were more likely to survive, but that, currently, such responses are in fact no longer advantageous. Therefore, this explains why stress would have such an effect on the immune functions of the body, at least from the perspective of someone who is doing an evolutionary investigation into the issue of the reasons why we see these phenomena occur.

Thus, psychoneuroimmunology is one of the most important and fastest growing areas of medicine to bridge the gap between neurological theory and medicinal practice. The literature is quickly evolving and changing. Indeed, there is an increasing hope that this field may be the one to deliver on the promise of the discovery of "the scientific foundations for a new type of treatment whose essence is to combat disease by strengthening the body's own defenses against stress" ("Association for the Advancement of Applied Psychoneuroimmunology"):

What is of importance is not whether we have our emotional ups and downs, but rather that lingering unresolved emotions and inflexible ways of coping, can become the source of chronic low grade stress, which can undermine immune system functioning. This may not necessarily cause disease, however, given the right genetics, a weakened physical condition, or an existing illness and you may be sitting on a time bomb.

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Certainly, if even a small part of this objective were achieved in even the most minute and smallest of demonstrable ways it would be an exceptional, massive, and earth-shattering step forward in terms of our current medical ability to prevent a myriad of physical difficulties and ailments to which stress is a heavily contributing factor. Indeed, few things could probably work to ease the suffering of modern humanity more than a series of methods by which the effects of stress on the immune system could be greatly reduced.