Depression is a complex illness that can be caused by one or a mix of many things, from environmental stressors to genetics. The search for better understanding to properly diagnosis patients is an ongoing process, here is another way that studies / research are paving the way:
Inflammation and Depression | Acute inflammation is a protective mechanism, but chronic inflammation causes simultaneous destruction and reparation of tissue that harms the body in the long term. Usually, inflammation is triggered by physical injury or infection. This could represent a relationship between the two.
But a new study out of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has highlighted a link between clinical depression and brain inflammation that might be crucial in better understanding stress and depression's physical impacts on the body, as well as in developing better treatments for these mental health issues.
In the study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, the researchers found that people with clinical depression had a 30% increase in brain inflammation, also referred to as neuroinflammation - from the study:
It's uncertain whether the inflammation caused the depression or vice versa, or if it's simply a correlation. But the study makes it clear that the link should be further examined. Research has found a link between clinical depression and brain inflammation, that is a positive sign for opening up new treatments (according to studies in JAMA Psychiatry).
The study included 40 people: 20 who were diagnosed with depression but were otherwise healthy and 20 controls. The researchers took brain scans of each participant. Participants with depression were more likely to have higher rates of brain inflammation compared with controls, and those with the most severe depression had the most severe inflammation. Patients with depression had an average of 30% more brain inflammation than controls.
While the study does not make it clear if depression causes inflammation or vice versa, the link has implications for further research and treatment options. However, previous research has shown that stress and emotional trauma can cause inflammation by readying immune cells to fight infection when there is no infection. Depression may cause a similar response, but more research is needed to draw conclusions.
With that level of insight, the need is greater than ever to prove or dis-prove, studies such as this will certainly add value to finding additional causal relationships that will help in diagnosing / treating people with clinical depression.