Description: How your immune system causes depression.
depression (5872) mental health (4477) mood (211) immune system (183) cytokines (14)
In 1991 I wrote a speculative biomedical paper suggesting that the immune system is the key to understanding a broad range of mental illnesses, including depression, schizophrenia, hyperactivity, anxiety and manic-depressive disorder. 1 The basic idea was this: the immune system, when activated, secretes potent hormone-like substances called cytokines. These cytokines have powerful effects on the brain: they alter brain function and behavior. Indeed, cytokines, based on many scientific reports, can cause al
Considerable biomedical research has been published recently showing that the immune system is profoundly involved in psychiatric diseases, especially depression. The discoveries on the role of the immune system in mental illness form the basis for a new understanding of the nature of mental illness, especially depression. These discoveries have remarkable implications for the treatment, prevention and cure of mental disease. Yet few people know about these developments. The public is completely oblivious.
The problem with our present understanding of mental illness is our lack of understanding. After 100 years of research, the major mental illnesses remain draped in mystery. Scientists have yet to discover the cause (etiology) of any psychiatric disease, whether it be depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder or attention deficit disorder. The fundamental nature of mental disease is poorly understood. For example, it isn't known if schizophrenia is one disease or many different diseases with s