Who Believes in “Communication”?: Norman Cousins Lecture 1999
Nowadays no one doubts that behavior and neuroendocrine output are functionally connected. Most scientists will also agree that nearly every neuroendocrine mediator can modulate activity of the immune system. However, the statement that behavior can modulate the activity of the immune system and consequently influence disease susceptibility and progression still meets with skepticism (or even disbelief ). Reasons for this inconsistency are not clear, but they may, at least partly, involve an emotional response based on the idea that behavior cannot be so powerful as to interfere with ongoing immune responses or pathogenic processes. Perhaps in normal everyday life one would rather avoid the idea that one’s psyche can contribute to disease susceptibility and progression. The aim of my Norman Cousins Lecture was to present evidence that behavior and/or the neuroendocrine system can indeed fine-tune activities of the immune system. The result of this fine-tuning is that the activity of the immune system is set at a certain balance. This balance is not meant to imply that a certain type of behavior or a given neuroendocrine response pattern will automatically have negative consequences for the immune system. In contrast, fine-tuning of immune reactivity as the result of an interaction between behavior and the neuroendocrine and immune systems may well serve an adaptive or homeostatic purpose. The latter assumption implies that this fine-tuning of immune reactivity by behavioral and/or neuroendocrine processes may have important consequences in disease states. Moreover, understanding ways in which immune reactivity can be modulated by behaviorally evoked neuroendocrine signals may lead to more efficient therapeutic strategies to treat somatic diseases by using behavioral therapy and/or neuroendocrine modulating drugs.