Inflammation has nothing to do with it?
The link between depression and inflammation has been called into question
Polina Gershberg, Naked Science
The work conducted under the guidance of psychologist Eiko Fried refutes the widespread assumption that the development of depression is directly related to the intensification of inflammatory processes in the body. An article about this was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Fried et al., Using network analysis to examine links between individual depressive symptoms, inflammatory markers, and covariates).
Over the past few decades, many studies have been conducted on the relationship between depression and inflammatory processes in the body. Some of them showed that people with depression had a higher concentration of biochemical markers of inflammation in their blood. From this it was concluded that the presence of such markers can be used to diagnose depression.
Fried and his colleagues found that there is no direct link between depression and inflammation; unlike most previous studies, the new work took into account 28 different symptoms of depression and a number of important lifestyle factors. For the analysis, the scientists used a database of anxiety and depression studies conducted in the Netherlands and included information on 2,300 patients with various degrees of disease – from mild to severe chronic depression.
Some specific symptoms of this disease – sleep deprivation, bad habits, destructive behavior, obesity – may indeed be associated with an increased level of inflammation. This is also reflected in the concentration of biochemical markers of the inflammatory process – for example, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor. However, this only indicates a connection between these specific manifestations of depressive disorder and pathological processes in the body and does not indicate inflammation as a potential diagnostic sign of depression.
According to Eiko Fried, the definition of depression based on clinical tests is a desirable, but unattainable goal for doctors. A new study shows that there is no point in searching for biochemical markers of this mental disorder. So a breakthrough in the diagnosis of depression should not be expected.
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