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Psychological Stress and Susceptibility to Infectious
Diseases
Abstract
This article reviews research on the role of psychological stress,
personality, social support and other psychosocial factors in
bacterial, viral and parasitic infections. After 100 years of
research on man and animals, psychological stress is considered as
a potential cofactor in the pathogenesis of infectious disease.
Psychological stress seems able to alter the susceptibility of
animals and man to infectious agents, influencing the onset, course
and outcome of certain infectious pathologies. Many experiments
have identified in neuroimmunomodulation the principal mediator of
the alterations associated with conditions of stress. The
development of psychoneuroimmunology has fostered in-depth study of
the complex relationship between psychosocial factors, the central
nervous system, the immune system and infectious disease. Although
antimicrobial drugs have certainly remained the basis of all
anti-infective therapy, this type of study has already led some
authors to propose and experiment protocols of psychological
intervention or psychoimmunotherapy in pathologies such as
tuberculosis, or herpes simplex virus or human immunodeficiency
virus infections. The psychoneuroimmunological approach to
infectious diseases will probably grow in importance in the future
not only in the setting of research in psychosomatic medicine but
also in that of clinical microbiology.
Title:Psychological Stress, Neuroimmunomodulation, and
Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Animals and Man: A Review
[Special Article] Author: Massimo Biondi and Luca-Gionata Zannino
Source: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 1997 66 : 3-26.
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