Clinical psychoneuroimmunology is a continuously growing integrative clinical science that examines the interrelations between psyche, immune system and neurological processes and attempts to integrate these findings into the clinical treatment of patients.

A central focus of this clinical discipline is using a psychoneuroimmunological perspective to alleviate stress or strain caused by physical or mental diseases especially by chronic illnesses.

The science of clinical psychoneuroimmunology is based on the finding that the brain affects the immune system and the immune system affects the brain in ways that are relevant to behavioral disturbance and to links between stress and medical illness. Hence each human being per se is a network but at the same time part of a network. This latter network consists of the social structures in which any person is involved.

From the experiment to the fundament:

Starting with Robert Ader as an experimental science within the clinical psychiatry, psychoneuroimmunology has established itself through scientific research by Andrew Miller, Charles L. Raison, Robert Dantzer, Michael Irwin, Keith Kelly, Steven Maier, Ron Glaser, Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, Michael Maes, Hymie Anisman, Raz Yirmya, George Solomon, Norman Cousins and others. Thanks to the interdisciplinary teaching activities of Bram van Dam and Leo Pruimboom, it was possible to have psychoneuroimmunology integrated into the therapeutical day-to-day routine.

The increasing volume of this expert field is reflected by various publications and literature of the last few years, all of them in many languages.