ABSTRACT
Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of relations between psychosocial factors, the central nervous system, the immune system, and health. To date, the human literature within this fi eld has focused on a working model that stressful life events impact immune function, which in turn modifi es host resistance to immune-related disease (Cohen & Herbert, 1996). Upper respiratory infections (URIs) have served as one of the primary disease models in this literature, and early prospective studies supported popular belief and provided compelling evidence that stressful life events and psychological distress predict biologically verifi ed infectious illness (Cohen et al., 1998; Cohen, Tyrrell, & Smith, 1991, 1993; Stone et al., 1992). More recent attention has focused on possible mechanisms of this effect. In this regard, there is substantial evidence that stress is associated with changes in immune function (Segerstrom & Miller, 2004); however, the implications of stress-induced immune changes for susceptibility to disease largely remain to be established. This chapter provides an overview of the human literature in psychoneuroimmunology, exploring evidence linking stress to immune function and susceptibility to infectious disease. Particular attention is given to individual differences in the magnitude of stress-related changes in immunity as one plausible explanation for variability in susceptibility to infectious pathogens.
