Posted by SLS on November 11, 2012, at 7:02:12
In reply to Re: Depression is Infectious Inflammation » bleauberry, posted by SLS on November 10, 2012, at 22:37:59
Sorry about the poor proofreading.
I meant to say:
"Inflammation is a common reaction (denominator) in a great many human injuries and disorders. That doesn't mean that infection is the cause of them."Psychosocial stress can provoke inflammation. One pathway by which this can occur involves the neurotoxicity produced by glutamatergic hyperactivity (immunoexcitotoxicity). Anxiety is an example of this. Infection has not been implicated in this process as far as I know. Of course, this does not preclude infection from making things worse or leaving one more vulnerable to depressive reactions.
I tend to think that inflammation is the consequence of major depressive disorder (MDD) rather than its cause. The same is probably true of bipolar disorder (BD). Perhaps there is a positive feedback loop involved. Depression would produce inflammation which would worsen depression which would increase inflammation, etc. I don't think this is the majority opinion, though.
- Scott
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1030987
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20121029/msgs/1031062.html