Article in Dutch about how an auto immune disease can cause depression
https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/het-ontstoken-brein-hoe-een-verstoord-immuunsysteem-tot-psychische-problemen-kan-leiden~b9a0f8bf/
Google translate it in your language.
Interesting article , Vandemolen ( I do not read Dutch, but I used the new online translator, DeepL.com, that is so better than google translator or any other !).
What they describe matches the hypothesis I have written about here, that some cytokines create inflammation in the brain, and cause anxiety, depression, mood swngs, and the like ( see my posts on the kynurenine pathways).
Here is a part of the article, translated ( with no correction, just copy and paste of what DeepL gives) :
" Incorrectly adjusted
By now it is clear that as soon as an inflammation occurs somewhere, immune cells produce cytokines, a kind of chemical messenger substances that promote their mutual communication. These cytokines can travel to the brain, where they cause miscommunications between nerve cells, especially in areas of the brain that regulate mood. Patients with autoimmune diseases persistently produce a lot of cytokines, which can do their depressing work in the brain.
Can do. After all, not all people with an autoimmune disease suffer from psychological problems. Drexhage: 'We know that the cytokine route is one of the routes from an autoimmune disease to mood disorders. But there is also another. Autoimmune diseases and part of the mood disorders have the same underlying abnormality in the immune system: it is misaligned. In one patient, these misaligned immune cells attack his own body, resulting in an autoimmune disease. In other patients, the incorrectly adjusted immune cells are mainly found in the brain. If those immune cells, called microglia in the brain, are constantly in combat mode, they have no time for their other important task: building and maintaining the brain. With the ultimate consequence: a mental disorder.
In unlucky birds, such a misaligned immune system leads to both: an autoimmune disease plus a mental disorder.
Steven Wester (47) is such an unlucky man. He has sarcoidosis, an immunologically determined inflammatory disease that attacks your own organs. It started with a pneumothorax in 2006. His job as an electrician became an impossible one. Eventually the work at the office became too hard for him. I have so little energy. I have to choose between my family and my work, because I need 12 to 16 hours of sleep'.
When he had to give up work, he became depressed by everything that had happened. At least that's what Wester said. But three years ago a psychiatrist diagnosed an autistic disorder, nothing depression.
Enlightening thought.
That's when all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place,' says Wester. I've always found it difficult to cope with stimuli. There was always the threat of panic if things turned out differently than I had thought. That was difficult, but I could live with it. Now that I have so many problems with it: sarcoidosis, fatigue, forced unemployment, my autistic disorder plays a much bigger role. I already panic when I run out of peanut butter.
That his sarcoidosis and autism are both the result of a misaligned immune system has not been proven. "But it's an enlightening thought for me. The weakness I feel psychologically feels so much like a physical thing. I feel better understood.'
In the latest large-scale European research into the immune system and mental disorders (Moodstratification), Drexhage and his European colleagues are going to intervene for the first time in (small numbers of) patients to correct the immune system and thus improve mood regulation. Subjects suffering from severe depression - in whom the immune system seems to suffer most from premature aging - will receive experimental medication against autoimmune diseases.
The effect on mood of intensive exercise twice a week is also studied. Sport is known to alleviate depression and prevent premature ageing of the immune system. Subjects with bipolar disorder - whose immune cells are probably too sharply focused because they have too little of it - are given means to stimulate the thymus to produce more immune cells.
Severe stress
A disrupted immune system can be a hereditary issue, which may or may not bother you. Or that you only get problems after a pregnancy, because the immune system is challenged even more. Or where you only suffer after severe stress due to a major setback in your life. A disturbed immune system can also be the result of a serious trauma incurred during childhood. Drexhage: 'Prolonged stress in childhood puts the immune system on edge. That has now been established. What we are actually doing with our research is making serious psychological problems biologically explicable. On a cellular level.'
That doesn't mean that a patient can't be helped with psychotherapy, Drexhage emphasizes. That can help you to be more resistant to stress. You shouldn't underestimate the effect of stress reduction, learning to relax and behavioural changes, even if there is a biological cause. I only hope that the psychiatrist will refer you to the hospital if there is a possible physical cause for the mood problems, so that they can be treated'.
The results of Moodstratification are expected in 2022. If the patients benefit from the interventions, experiments can start with really large groups of patients. It will take at least another ten years, Drexhage estimates, before psychiatric patients will benefit from these insights."
