Human Psychoneuroimmunology

Mind-body interactions have been the subject of debate for many generations. However, it is only in recent years that these interactions have become the subject of rigorous scientific enquiry. In recent years there have been major advances in our understanding of the stress process, theendocrine and immune systems, and the methodologies used to investigate these phenomena. As a result, we have witnessed an explosion of research activity in the field known as psychoneuroimmunology - the study of psychological processes and their interaction with the nervous and immune systems. This book presents an up to date account of the human evidence in this field. The first three chapters introduce the reader to the biological systems at the heart of mind/body interactions and the methods used to investigate them. Thereafter, each chapter deals with a separate clinical entity;examining the theoretical basis for mind/body interactions; the associated empirical evidence and directions for future research. With each chapter written by international experts in the field, it provides the reader with an up to date account of the research evidence in the rapidly evolving fieldof psychoneuroimmunology.

Dr. Kavita Vedhara is an MRC Career Track Scientist. She is on the editorial board of British Journal of Health Psychology, Psychology and Health and Brain, Behaviour and Immunity M. Irwin: Associate Editor of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (official journal of the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society)
Editorial Board, Psychosomatic Medicine
Advisory Council, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health
Past-President, Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research
Past President, Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society
Norman Cousins Professor at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA