In cardiovascular disease, the role of stressful life events, personality profiles, and affective disorders as risk factors for the development of morbidity and mortality from established coronary artery disease is well established.1 Furthermore, specific biological mediators of these psychosocial factors, such as reduced cardiovagal tone and altered platelet function have been identified.2 In contrast, the role of psychosocial factors in the development and modulation of common gastrointestinal disorders, such as functional and inflammatory bowel disorders and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease remain controversial. This is particularly surprising in view of the unique well established bidirectional interactions between the brain and gut, the prominent role of the gut associated lymphoid tissue in this brain-gut interaction, and in view of the common clinical impression that certain stressful life events frequently precede exacerbation of symptoms in all of these disorders. However, recent breakthroughs in our understanding of the neurobiology of the stress response both under acute conditions and in the setting of chronic stress provide a framework for scientific investigation which allow us to move from the traditional psychological and epidemiological domain into the biological interface between mind, brain, and gut function.3 The article by Qiu and colleagues4is a good example of this new approach to unravelling the role of stress in disorders of the gut. Evidence for a role of chronic stressors in the modulation of disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) comes from …