1 Thus, even if psychiatric and somatic conditions do not affect each other, they might still cosegregate if they share common underlying factors, including genetic factors. Especially in complex disorders with multif actorial pathophysiological mechanisms, the relevance of genes has exceeded the simple identification of a diseaseenabling cause and is now focusing on #selleck AZD9291 keyword# importance for treatment response, side effects, interactions with the environment, and personality factors. It was further proposed that both the vulnerability for different disorders and the individual’s interaction with the environment are

influenced by genes (“nature and nurture”).2 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Mechanisms of the interaction between brain and body The

dispute over whether the brain or the body predominates can be traced back to ancient times. Although Hippocrates (460-377 bc), the legendary father of medicine, gave an early description of the brain and recognized that each side of the brain controls Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the opposite side of the body, the ultimate conceptual framework of brain-body interactions was established by the seminal observations of the French philosopher René Descartes (1596-1650). He provided the first articulation of the brain-body interaction by localizing the brain’s contact with body in the pineal gland, and thus raised the question of the brain being the necessary body’s control Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical center. Today, we are now aware that there are intimate connections and communications between brain and soma, since adaptation to stressful stimuli, maintenance of homeostasis, and ultimately survival require a bidirectional feedback communication among the different components. Thus, the combined actions of the central nervous system (CNS) and closely linked hormonal and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical immune systems function as a “supercontroller” with the capacity to regulate not only cognition and behavior, but also heart and vasculature, metabolism, and fluid and electrolyte balance.3 Mental

stress, either acute or chronic, produces certain physiological responses via the CNS (Figure 1). The body’s adaptive responses Entinostat to stress stimuli are mediated by an intricate system, which includes the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and the sympathoadrenal system. Dysregulation of the system by repetitive or chronic stress may induce continually increased adrenocortico-tropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosteroid levels, increase the production of monoamines and proinflammatory cytokines within the brain, and thus contribute to a variety of somatic and psychiatric disorders including hypertension, atherosclerosis, functional disorders of the digestive system, several immunological disorders, affective disorders, or anxiety.