So in doing some reading for another class, I came upon a news article in the textbook that was titled “Does Inflammation Contribute to the Development of Depression?” and well that caught my attention and brought me back to this class. Research shows that through systemic infection, activation of the immune system increases proinflammatory cytokines like interleukin (IL)-1α and IL-β, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and IL-6. These cytokines are produced in the periphery serve to regulate the inflammatory response to pathogens. It said that cytokines will also enter the brain and modulate a widespread brain cytokine system consisting of the neurons and glial cells with the cytokine receptors involved in altering brain function. That with cytokines on the brain it creates symptoms of sickness like loss of appetite, malaise, and avoidance of social interactions. These symptoms overlap key features of depression like fatigue, reduced appetite, altered mood and thoughts.
It says that yes the sickness
symptoms may go away in time and be reversible, but there may be certain people
that may be too vulnerable to overcome it and be exposed to the inflammation
for a longer period of time and in that being exposed to depression symptoms as
well. And also they made a connection between the drug treatments used for
depression, like antidepressants which reduce the activation of proinflammatory
cytokines. So in that, the development of drugs that would target inflammation,
it would also be inhibiting the development of depression. I thought this was
really interesting; it would kill 2 birds with 1 stone since depression is one
the common mood disorders that are the leading cause of disability in the U.S.
and throughout the world.
McCance
KL and SE Huether. 2010. Pathophysiology:
The Biological Basis for Disease in
Adults and Children (6nd
ed.) Mosby-Year Book, St. Louis.
I like the idea of linking inflammation to the development of depression. However, the results that you described above seems to show little to no correlation between those two. I would love to read the article to see what they did, but could not find it anywhere. Nevertheless, very interesting area of study.I hope that they discover more findings and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Thank you for the nice post.
ReplyDeleteSorry about that, this news bit I got from the textbook assigned for one of the classes I took past semester (NURS 350). Came across it recently and thought it related to the class. I'm not sure if there's been more studies about it from this, but sure would be great to find out. Inflammation sure has two sides to it.
ReplyDeleteIn reading your blog post, I could definitely see the correlation with depression and inflammation when it comes to obesity and diabetes. We've talked about obesity being an inflammatory disease during the semester and it hits close to home for me. Obesity runs in my family (though I suppose it doesn't have to), and so does depression. So having discussed obesity as an inflammatory disease, relating the two makes sense in my head.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see more studies done on this association between inflammation and depression to discover whether there is a true relationship or not.
Karen- It is a nice idea to think that inflammation contributes to the development of depression, but the results (as Sho said) does not show strong correlation to one another. I think that it is more of a mental instability as a result of the type of disease that one has. They feel sorry for themselves and their misfortune which leads to a form of depression. So more severe inflammatory diseases would cause development of deeper depression, or already unstable minds may be more prone to depression given even a less severe inflammatory disease. I hope you can understand what I am trying to say because it is difficult for me to project my thoughts on this. Thanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteYes, understood Jordan :)
DeleteYeah I kind of agree with Jordan on this one...though it does make sense the inflammation or at least getting sick my influence the development of depression but I don't necessarily think they are directly linked. But...on the other hand rule something out because it sounds absurd is wrong, remember we using to think disease was caused by bad smells and spirits. So its good to keep an open mind.
ReplyDeleteKaren, this is a very thought provoking post... You did make it pretty evident that these findings by the researchers are rather suggestive as opposed to concrete, publish-worthy results. This is something that definitely requires more research and these results suggest it would at least be worthwhile to at the very least look into the phenomenon further. Based off of your post, it looks like the main place we should focus on moving forward is on the potential affects of any free-flowing serum cytokines on the "brain cytokine system" you mentioned above. It would be hard, but it would be great to compile a group of people experiencing the same source of inflammation and set out to monitor the activity of the brain cytokine system you mentioned... Also, maybe researchers could get healthy individuals and promote a specific inflammation response in each of them while monitoring that system. I look forward to seeing some results in the future looking at any potential connection between any type of inflammation and the moral produced by the brain. Although it would have been neat to see more publish-worthy research already completed from this group, it is thought-provoking nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteReferencing the other blog post about the cretan Mediterranean diet and its anti-inflammatory properties, I feel a lot happier mentally when I live a more anti-inflammatory lifestyle. Just my own experience when I eat horribly and don't exercise I feel like crappy and depressed and never want to get out of bed. Maybe the inflammation plays a role in this process. And an interesting sidenote, I remembered hearing about gut bacteria being linked to depression and was wondering if they thought it was because of the increased inflammation. “Leaky gut may maintain increased inflammation in depressed patients, which could exacerbate the symptoms of depression if not treated"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=gut-bacteria-may-exacerbate-depress