Is depression a kind of allergic reaction?
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/04/depression-allergic-reaction-inflammation-immune-system
George Slavich, a clinical psychologist at the University of
California in Los Angeles, has spent years studying depression, and has
come to the conclusion that it has as much to do with the body as the
mind. “I don’t even talk about it as a psychiatric condition any more,”
he says. “It does involve psychology, but it also involves equal parts
of biology and physical health.”
The basis of this new view is blindingly obvious once it is pointed
out: everyone feels miserable when they are ill. That feeling of being
too tired, bored and fed up to move off the sofa and get on with life is
known among psychologists as sickness behaviour. It happens for a good
reason, helping us avoid doing more damage or spreading an infection any
further.
It also looks a lot like depression. So if people with depression
show classic sickness behaviour and sick people feel a lot like people
with depression – might there be a common cause that accounts for both?
The answer to that seems to be yes, and the best candidate so far is
inflammation – a part of the immune system that acts as a burglar alarm
to close wounds and call other parts of the immune system into action. A
family of proteins called cytokines sets off inflammation in the body,
and switches the brain into sickness mode.
Both cytokines and inflammation http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2008.12.001" rel="nofollow - have been shown to rocket during depressive episodes ,
and – in people with bipolar – to drop off in periods of remission.
Healthy people can also be temporarily put into a depressed, anxious
state when given a vaccine that causes a spike in inflammation.
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