Although depression affects thousands of people all around the world, there are still so many things that are not known about it. For example, how does it really develop? Most experts believe that it has something to do with chemical imbalance, but there's still more to it.
A group of Canadian researchers may have found a significant answer. Based on their new study, depression may be linked to an inflammation in the brain.
Inflammation is actually the body's natural response to threat such as an infection or a trauma. It means that your antibodies are working really hard to fight off the threat. In the case of brain inflammation in respect to depression, more than likely, the patient has suffered from a lingering infection or a brain injury, whether mild or severe, and the brain continues to act on it.
To come up with this analysis, the researchers working at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health located in Toronto, Canada, studied the brain scans of 20 patients diagnosed with depression and 20 of those who didn't have it.
They then discovered that people who had clinical depression also had brain inflammation by 30%. Moreover, the inflammation of the brain is also directly correlated to symptoms of the disease. In other words, the more inflamed it appears, the more severe the symptoms of depression are. A person with severe depression is more likely to have suicidal thoughts or very isolated from others. The connection between the two may also explain, at least initially, why people with chronic inflammatory diseases such lupus are also at a higher risk of depression.
The study, nevertheless, is still in its earliest stages, which means more have to be done. One of the things the scientists have to work on is whether inflammation leads to depression or if it's the other way around.
Nevertheless, the scientists find the breakthrough very significant as it raises the idea that if once the inflammation is reduced or treated, the patient may also overcome depression.
You can read more about the study in the latest issue of JAMA Psychiatry.
