lansbergen
Senior Member
- Messages
- 2,512
How does psychological stress cause inflammation? Cortisol is an antiinflammatory hormone?
Welcome to Phoenix Rising!
Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.
How does psychological stress cause inflammation? Cortisol is an antiinflammatory hormone?
I agree with pretty much everything you say here, @Dichotohmy. Except that I feel calling it neuro-inflammation begs the question. Its inflammation, pure and simple. Makes people feel tired and yuk. Looks to a doctor like depression (and maybe even feels a bit like that). Whether than inflammation is initiated within the CNS, I haven't yet seen any convincing evidence.Neuroinflammation has been a known correlate to psychiatric diseases for a long time, but the evidence never seems to gain traction or lead to effective pharmaceutical treatment for neuroinflammation. It could be because medicine isn't very good at treating neuro-immune diseases. However, in the case of life threatening neiro-immune conditions like anti-NMDAR encephalitis, medicine will treat aggressively with immune suppressants and other full measures.
I think the real reason psychiatric problems, which are likely of a neuro-immune, and thus neuroinflammatory origin, are treated with half measures like anti-depressants, atypical antipsychotics, or behavioral therapies comes down to money plain and simple. The perfect combination of managed healthcare, robber-baron-like pharmaceutical companies, and doctors pressured to see more patients in less time, and finally, the unlikelyhood of imminent death are some of the reasons why psychiatric patients get destined to half measure treatments.
A perfect example of this idea is the diagnosis of treatment resistant depression. TRD is by credible accounts a neuroinflammatory condition, and thus deserves the real full measure treatments like this article suggests, yet so many TRD patients continue trying over 25 drug combos and other half measures. The fact that TRD is a real diagnosis that sticks, instead of the patient's health-care team seeking a new diagnosis when its obvious depression treatments aren't working, cynically demonstrates the pervasiveness of half measures in medicine and a lacking in a sense of urgency among individual physicians.
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/maj...ent-resistance-major-depression-perfect-storm
I don't think the inflammation is being ignored, because in the above article it mentions that:
That is the problem. Depression is just a symptom, and may in fact be many other things other than some psych issue, including inflammation and inflammatory processes.Looks to a doctor like depression
Me too, @ukxmrv!I'm wondering if this group has a whole host of other symptoms but only the mood ones are being reported or taken notice of
No, never heard anyone trying that. I went on prednisone during a very bad crash last year. It worked a treat, but the effects sort of "wore off" after a while. Not sure why.anyone know if any cfsers have tried immune suppressants (imuran for example) like those given for other suspected autoimmune illnesses?
Neuroinflammation has been a known correlate to psychiatric diseases for a long time, but the evidence never seems to gain traction or lead to effective pharmaceutical treatment for neuroinflammation. It could be because medicine isn't very good at treating neuro-immune diseases. However, in the case of life threatening neiro-immune conditions like anti-NMDAR encephalitis, medicine will treat aggressively with immune suppressants and other full measures.
A new study published this week is the first to demonstrate that the brains of people with schizophrenia – or at risk of developing it – have significantly higher levels of immune cell activity than those with no sign of the disorder.
How does psychological stress cause inflammation? Cortisol is an antiinflammatory hormone?
GCR refers to a decrease in the sensitivity of immune cells to glucocorticoid hormones that normally terminate the inflammatory response (6–9). Evidence for GCR in response to chronic stress has been found in parents of children with cancer (10), spouses of brain-cancer patients (11) and in persons reporting high levels of loneliness (5).
Is there test for gullibility I wonder?
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-36459679
When the medical establishment start addressing the real issues, probably never. We need to start thinking why?
so are these two separate things then?
a group of patients who are dx'ed with Depression and respond to the conventional drugs and who don't have inflammation (well at least what they are looking for here). Could they have the old idea of a serotonin problem.
I think there are a huge number of factors playing into this. Some scientific, some cultural, some just poor reasoning.We need to think as well why that is the case.
Finding clear signs of inflammation in the brain should be enough to cause a paradigm shift here - why are they still calling it a mental disorder?
Oh yes that's right, negative thoughts and bad coping skills causes stress, which leads to inflammation in the brain. Now you need a lot of CBT and mindfulness to make you cope with everyday life.
These TRD diagnosed patients eventually find themselves abandoned by psychiatry, because none of the psychiatric treatments work. Medical doctors won't try to help them either, because they are diagnosed psych patients.
A TRD diagnosis means long term abandonment by the medical system with no treatment. It's appalling.
I did not say that inflammation is ignored. I said that the possibility that this is really an inflammatory disease is ignored. They're still trying to continue with complicated, unproven and vague cognitive behavioural psychosomatic models. They're writing that "stress" causes inflammation.
Whether than inflammation is initiated within the CNS, I haven't yet seen any convincing evidence.
@ebethc
That is why I was pleased to see this new research, which has developed a test for the neuroinflammation that can cause depression. This is definitely psychiatry moving in the right direction: looking for abnormalities in the brain to explain mental symptoms.
So, no, neuroinflammation does not necessarily equal depression. 1) it CAN cause biological depression along with other factors, and 2) it can co-exist w a psychological depression.