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Inflammation May Be Causing Depression in

About One-Third of Patients


Amy Capetta
November 25, 2015

(Corbis)
While its understood that inflammation can cause aches and pain throughout the body,
researchers from Emory University have discovered that inflammation can also affect those
suffering from depression.
According to the study authors, high levels of inflammation is associated with a failure to
communicate between two parts of the brainthe ventral striatum and the ventromedial

prefrontal cortex. And approximately one-third of people diagnosed with depression have
markers of elevated inflammation levels in their blood.
Related: 24 Questions People With Mental Illness Wish Youd Ask
These results, which were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, also indicate that
chronic inflammation can affect the brain in ways that are connected with stubborn symptoms
of depression, such as anhedonia (defined as the inability to experience pleasure), which can be
difficult to treat.
So how exactly does anhedonia differ from other types of depression?
The diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) is made up of a number of symptoms,
lead researcher Jennifer C. Felger, PhD, MS, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral
sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and Winship Cancer Institute, tells Yahoo
Health. The two core symptoms of depression are depressed mood and anhedonia, one of
which must be present to make a diagnosis of MDD. Thus, most depressed exhibit some level
of anhedonia as part of their illness.
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Felger adds that a simple laboratory test can determine whether or not someones specific case
of depression is linked to inflammation. Physicians would be looking for an inflammatory
marker in the blood called C-reactive protein (CRP), which is a protein made in the liver in
response to inflammation, she explains. It has been used clinically to determine risk for
cardiovascular disease, but is also increased in a number of other diseases such as
inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders and cancer.
In this current study, Felger and researcher team tested the 48 participants in order to eliminate
other underlying medical issues that may have been causing their inflammation.
CRP was also measured over a period of weeks to ensure that inflammation levels were stable
and to rule out an acute infection, like a cold or flu, she states. In our sample of depressed
patients, the high levels of inflammation observed was most likely related to increased stress
and obesity, which have been shown in a number of studies in humans and laboratory animals
to increased inflammation in the brain and in the body.
Felger will be conducting further research to find out if L-DOPA, a medicine that targets the
brain chemical dopamine, can increase connectivity in reward-related brain regions in patients
who are suffering from inflammation-linked depression.
We hope our investigations may lead to new therapies to treat anhedonia in high-inflammation
depression, she concludes.

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