Depression and the Inflammatory System ? Let's Use Hypnosis!

From ScienceDaily.com:

"A study at Emory University School of Medicine shows that depressed patients experience excessive inflammation during stressful situations.Individuals with major depression have an exaggerated inflammatory response to psychological stress compared to those who do not suffer from depression. Because an overactive inflammatory response may contribute to a number of medical disorders as well as to depression, the findings suggest that increased inflammatory responses to stress in depressed patients may be a link between depression and other diseases, including heart disease, as well as contributing to depression itself.

Results of the study are published in the Sept. 1 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The study included 28 medically healthy male participants, half of whom were diagnosed with major depression and half of whom were not depressed. The participants were exposed to two moderately stressful situations during a 20-minute time period. Blood was collected every 15 minutes starting immediately before and then up to an hour and a half after the test to check for key indicators of inflammation. The researchers measured levels of a pro-inflammatory cytokine (a regulatory protein secreted by the immune system) called interleukin-6, and the activity of a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule in white blood cells called nuclear factor-kB.

Before the stress challenge, the depressed patients had increased inflammation relative to the control group. Both the depressed and the healthy groups showed an inflammatory response to the stress challenge, but people who were currently depressed exhibited the greatest increases of interleukin-6 and nuclear factor-kB."

Even though inflammation is essential for us to fight bacterial and viral infections, too much inflammation can cause us harm. Too much inflammation whether it be at rest or by stress, is thought by this article to maybe predispose people to become depressed or stay depressed. Inflammation may play a role in a number of disorders, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, all of which have been associated with depression.

People in the study who suffered from depression also had higher rates of early life stressful experiences. Perhaps this is an area where hypnotherapy can be useful at an earlier stage.