It’s becoming increasingly clear to us that inflammation plays a role in depression, at least for some individuals, and now our review suggests that it may be possible to treat these individuals using some anti-inflammatory drugs.
- Golam Khandaker
Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at Cambridge led a team that analysed data from 20 clinical trials involving the use of anti-cytokine drugs to treat a range of autoimmune inflammatory diseases. By looking at additional beneficial side-effects of the treatments, the researchers were able to show that there was a significant antidepressant effect from the drugs compared to a placebo based on a meta-analysis of seven randomised controlled trials. Meta-analyses of the other types of clinical trials showed similar results.
When we are exposed to an infection, for example influenza or a stomach bug, our immune system fights back to control and remove the infection. During this process, immune cells flood the blood stream with proteins known as cytokines. This process is known as systemic inflammation.
Even when we are healthy, our bodies carry trace levels of these proteins – known as ‘inflammatory markers’ – which rise exponentially in response to infection. Previous work from the team found that children with high everyday levels of one of these markers are at greater risk of developing depression and psychosis in adulthood, suggesting a role for the immune system, particularly chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, in mental illness.
Read the full story
Image: Depressing fog
Credit: Boudewijn Berends
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
_________________________________________________