Really interesting Investigator.
I have marked some specific points:
Patients with severe depression might benefit from electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve, which runs from the gut to the brain. This treatment is known to calm inflammation. Changes in diet and lifestyle could be effective, too.
This could be why SSRIs don’t benefit depressed patients with high levels of inflammation — as the raw material for making serotonin isn’t available.
(...)
It’s not just illness and infection that cause inflammation. Obesity is linked with it, especially the fat stored round the middle (a source of inflammatory cytokines). Habits such as smoking, not exercising and a high sugar diet all combine to keep inflammation raised.
However, about 80 per cent of depressive episodes are connected with stress, says Professor Bullmore, citing the example of a man who starts divorce proceedings being ten times more likely to suffer depression than the general population; the risk for his wife is 20 times greater.
(...)
One intriguing new treatment for depression could be nerve stimulation, he suggests — specifically stimulation of the vagus nerve that runs from the gut to the brain. This helps keep automatic processes such as the heart rate stable.
It is now known that it does the same thing for inflammation. Indeed, research with rheumatoid arthritis patients has found that 20 minutes a day of vagus nerve stimulation led to a rapid, significant drop in inflammation.
