Millions of people across the United States struggle with depression. It can be debilitating and exacerbate other health conditions that a person may be dealing with. Depression can cause or contribute to sleeplessness, anxiety, loss of enjoyment and motivation, hopelessness and anger that can dramatically affect a person’s life, relationships and ability to function in daily activities.
Extensive research has been conducted to better understand the cause of depression and potential treatments that may alleviate some of the symptoms. Anti-depressants and therapy may work for some people for a period of time, but these treatments don’t always deal with what may be causing the depression. A new study, however, may shed some light on this important area.
The study was conducted by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and found that brain inflammation may be a significant contributor to clinical depression.
By looking at brain scans of people with and without depression, researchers found that patients who had the most severe types of depression also had a significant amount of inflammation. They found that inflammation in the brain could be causing depressive symptoms even when there were no other conditions affecting a person’s health.
This research is important because it could significantly impact how depression is treated in the medical community. Rather than prescribing medication to manage the symptoms, it may instead prove to be more effective to treat brain inflammation. Treating the root cause of what may be causing clinical depression can be much more helpful than trying to manage the multitude of symptoms.
Suffering from a mood disorder like depression can be extremely upsetting, whether the illness is an independent condition or one developed in the wake of a serious injury or accident. Hopefully, this research will lead to more effective treatments that allow people to overcome this illness and regain a sense of stability.
Source: Science Daily, “New biological evidence reveals link between brain inflammation and major depression,” Jan. 28, 2015
