ABSTRACT
The frontier in medical scientific exploration involves the interface between detailed understanding of cells and the examination of how one body system interacts with others to communicate vital information, this is the field of psychoneuroimmunology. Some investigators and scientists who write about the immune system are still resistant to incorporating discussion of systems interaction, which is evidenced by the fact that recently written, standard medical textbooks describe the immune system as an autonomous entity, entirely ignoring information about systems integration. Research elucidating the interactions between the nervous and immune systems began with studies on conditioned responses of the immune system. Activation of the stress response during injury or illness, paradoxically, causes immune suppression and is an effective way to control its overexpression. Immune organs are innervated; cytokines and other immune neuropeptides send messages to the brain; the messages are heard by both the neuroendocrine and immune systems, this is systems integration.
