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Many health care professionals have to deal regularly with their patients' deaths and relatives' bereavement, but frequently they have not been trained in this area, and therefore the psychological cost is very high. The authors' principal aim in this work is to describe health care professionals' perceptions about death. A group of health care professionals who worked with children was compared with a group who worked with elderly people. Results showed that emotional aspects were perceived as more important than biomedical aspects in the death process. Between the groups, some differences were detected relating to the perception of the proximity of members' own deaths, and the authors could also observe that the death of a loved one was perceived as more important than their own death. These results should be taken into account to design training programs for health care professionals to minimize psychological costs and increase the quality of care.

ResumoExistem importantes evidências empíricas sobre a relação entre sistema imunológico, sistema nervoso e fatores psicossociais em pessoas sadias e aquelas que apresentam alguma infecção, como por exemplo, a infecção por HIV. Estudos atuais sugerem que aspectos comportamentais (hábitos e estilos de vida), psicológicos (estresse e estratégias de enfrentamento) e sociais (apoio social) podem influir na progressão da infecção por HIV. Esta revisão bibliográfica pretende apresentar uma compilação de trabalhos relevantes dentro deste âmbito que apóiam a perspectiva psiconeuroimunológica. Palavras-chave: Psiconeuroimunologia; HIV; AIDS. Psychoneuroimmunology and HIV Infection: Fact or Fiction?Abstract There is substantial empirical evidence from both healthy populations as well as individual with HIV infection, about the relationship among immune system, nervous system and psychological aspects. Current studies suggest that behavioral aspects (life styles), psychological aspects (stress control and coping strategies) and social aspects (social support) may influence the progression of HIV infection. This article presents a compilation of main issues related to HIV infection that contribute and support the psychoneuroimmunological approach.

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