This volume contains the proceedings of the 1st Alfried-Krupp-Wissenschaftskolleg-Symposium which was held at the University of Greifswald in 2004. It is dedicated to psychoneuroimmunology as a fascinating research field for bridging the gap between body and mind. From their point of view, different scientific disciplines give their specific insights into the complex interactions between organism, personality and environment. Clinical and research data from medicine, psychology and biology deal with the interrelation of immunoregulatory processes, genes, nervous system and behaviour under internal or external stress conditions. Thus, this cross-sectional approach makes a contribution to a better understanding of the etiology and the course of diseases such as HIV, chronic and acute inflammation, depression and others.

The volume is addressed to clinicians, researchers and students in the fields of medicine, psychology and biology.