UNLV School of Medicine students Vlada Stark, Autena Asefirad, Isabel Kovaltchouk, Alexandrea Pitts, along with Amy Stone, Ph.D., (all Medicine) presented their poster titled, "Psychoneuroimmunology in IBS: The Cytokine Imprint of Psychological Distress," at the 2025 American Medical Association (AMA) Interim House of Delegates Meeting.

The ongoing narrative review synthesizes interdisciplinary findings across gastroenterology, psychiatry, and immunology to propose a psychoneuroimmune model of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The work highlights consistent associations between psychological distress and immune dysregulation in IBS, particularly elevated IL-6 and TNF-α alongside reduced IL-10, and explores how stress-related neuroendocrine and inflammatory pathways may reinforce symptom persistence, especially in IBS-D subtypes. By reframing psychiatric symptoms as biologically integrated rather than comorbid, the poster underscores the potential for biomarker-informed, integrated treatment approaches that address both immune and psychological dimensions of IBS.