Depression + Stress = Inflammation?

Depression is known to be associated with conditions like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. It’s been suggested that the link may be inflammation. So it’s not surprising that the occurrence of inflammation in people with depression has been investigated. A new study from Emory University, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, has looked at the role of stress in depressed people. And it has found that stress does cause inflammation in such people.

Fourteen medically healthy but depressed men, and 14 men without depression, were tested for degrees of childhood trauma and stress; those with depression had higher test scores than those without. Then all the men were given the Trier Social Stress test; this consisted of 10 minutes’ preparation for a 5-minute public speech followed immediately by a 5-minute mental arithmetic test. Blood samples were taken to measure interleukin-6 and other components indicating a general inflammatory process.

Depressed patients had increased levels of the inflammation at baseline and following the stress test, but only in those subjects who had suffered increased early-life stress. It looks as if the link between depression, stress and inflammation may depend on a degree of ‘sensitization’ in the person by having had some childhood trauma or stress. Maybe this will keep the psychoanalysts busy?