THE REVIEWS OF Hart (13) and Kent et al. (20) have drawn attention to the so-called sickness syndrome, a suite of autonomic and behavioral manifestations (sickness symptoms or responses) of systemic inflammation. The syndrome unites sickness responses (e.g., fever, hypothermia, hyperalgesia and/or allodynia, hypoalgesia, sleep, and anorexia) that have different latencies and durations and follo...

The rapid actions of steroid hormones, although recognized for over half a century, until recently were largely overshadowed by the study of genomic actions mediated by nuclear hormone receptors. Many steroid hormones are now known to exert physiologically and behaviorally important actions within seconds to minutes, a time frame far too rapid to be mediated by genomic mechanisms. The recent is...