Past, present and future of psychoneuroimmunology

Psychoneuroimmunology was for the first time comprehensively described abou t 20 years ago. The influence of mental status on the course and outcome of a number of diseases, however, was suspected a long time before. Also the links between mental affective disorders and the immune status were repeate dly suggested. The authors in this paper shortly reviewed the most importan t clinical as well as experimental evidence which at present strongly suppo rts the concept of a close and bidirectional communication between central nervous, neuroendocrine and immune systems. The most important anatomical, physiological as well as pharmacological experimental data, which were obta ined by the authors during 20 years of research in this field, are presente d. The data strongly suggest that in the very next future we will not only better understand a very complex communication between mind and body, but a lso completely new types of compounds might become available. (C) 2000 Else vier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.