Inflaming inflammation and psychiatry

[natasa778]

Good blogpost

http://questioning-answers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/inflaming-inflammation-and-psychiatry.html

 

[Simon]

Thanks. A very interesting and thoughtful piece that is up front about the limitations of the data too

Questioning Answers: Inflaming inflammation and psychiatry

Inflaming inflammation and psychiatry

The systematic review published by Mitchell & Goldstein [1] kinda says it all when it comes to our current view of the topic of inflammation and psychiatry, and in particular inflammation and neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): "There is preliminary evidence for elevated markers of inflammation in this population".


I've talked quite a bit on this blog about how, as strange as it might seem, heightened inflammation and inflammatory processes/markers do seem to be over-represented in a fair few diagnoses with a neuropsychiatric element to them (see here and see here for example). Granted, one has to be careful not to over-generalise to an entire population (remember: autisms not autism) and the chicken-and-egg question of which came first inflammation or condition still hangs over this 'association.' But the realisation that inflammatory processes may link immune function to behavioural presentation [2] is not to be sniffed at...

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