Z Psychosom Med Psyc
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Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is closely associated with the bidirectional pathways between mind/brain and the immune system. PNI research represents a rapidly growing area within psychosomatic research. ⋯ It is shown that PNI studies measuring immune activity near the site of the disease (e. g. woundhealing) and dealing with objective stressors show more consistent findings (stress-associated Th1/Th2 shift, stress-associated proinflammatory activation) than those dealing with chronic and complex diseases (e. g., autoimmune disease). This warrants the expansion of the methodological repertoire in future PNI research toward designs allowing for the investigation of complex psychosomatic phenomena.