Psychosomatic medicine – viability of a discipline

Since ancient times, the self-evident interrelationship between functions of the brain and the development and regulation of other bodily functions has been used by medical caretakers in many cultures. With the Age of Enlightenment, the use of rational thinking was accompanied by the flourishing of natural science. Still, the biological mechanisms behind many brain functions remain to be decrypted. Modern psychology gallops side by side with the biological deciphering of the hitherto mystical mechanisms of emotions, thoughts, and attitudes. To the modern physician it is becoming clear that there is a bidirectional junction between the brain and the immune system and even the gut bacteria, as is illustrated in this issue. …