[wiretwister]

Depression: Allergic Reaction? Infectious Disease?

[larali]

That's interesting... my mom said that, too. My sister has autoimmune problems (multiple sclerosis being just one of them) and she believes it's a related issue.

Hmmm. Pretty interesting article, but some things I'd question or take issue with. The biggie of course is BP. If people have this IL-6 issue, they say they are more susceptible to depression from stress. But stress can also send us manic, which flies in the face of this.

Scott Russo's statement, "It means clinicians should start diagnosing based on biology and not on behavioral symptoms." is nothing short of asinine. They've got a LONG way to go in proving it for starters. He did an experiment with mice of which it was said, "These animals were in a state that seems to be somewhat similar to depression." "Some mice showed symptoms similar to those found in depressed patients..." (Italics mine.) Um, so we should ignore behavioral symptoms and have an entire profession throw out everything they know because he played with some mice and it seems-some-similar-somewhat to be something there? Um, no.

Later, he says (again, italics mine), "If we started to move more into diagnosing based upon biology, we would see that people who are depressed are actually reflective of a heterogeneous disease probably caused by hundreds, if not thousands, of things. IL-6 being one of them. And if we started to identify that and had diagnostic predictors of disease, we might be better able to treat it in the future."
Ahhhh, back to reality. (Though as a scientist he really shouldn't say "we would see" -- ie. reaching a conclusion before proving it able to be independently replicated by others, which is what the scientific method requires.)

I'm actually kind of amused when he talks about what factors might have heightened cytokine levels in the first place. Kind of an ironic return, looking to the "soft" sciences.

Paul Garfinkle saying that psychiatry is in need of a new paradigm, that the current one, "is a bit tired and in need of a refresh" is kind of troubling. It's not a fashion line after all.

Don't get me wrong-- I think it's great they're looking into these things and hope they find some answers. But I also hope they (or some governing entity) don't get ahead of themselves. It's complicated (understatement) stuff and interconnected with factors that can't be measured.

But hell yeah, it'd be nice to have a test. But also for it to be accessible (ie. not some super-expensive series that would preclude the most vulnerable from being able to know and get help). You know what they say, "Dream big!"

I have discussed this with my psychiatrist. My family and I have a lot of autoimmune disease that they think may be related to inflammation- depression, multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism, alopecia, type 1 diabetes. Those are the disease among me and my two kids.

She said she didn't think bipolar was included in that group but depression was.

Just theories.