Medical expert of the article
New publications
Depression can trigger cancer
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Decreased mood, apathy, loss of ability to experience joy, disturbed thinking are all symptoms of depression, the most common disorder in the modern world. Usually the development of depression is left without attention, and all the symptoms are written off for attacks of bad mood, moods, fatigue, etc. But in reality depression is a mental disorder and if you leave the patient without help, then a person can commit suicide.
One of the groups of American researchers has been investigating depressive disorders for several years to find out what kind of disease it is and how it can be managed. In the process of work, scientists found that depression affects not only the brain, this disease affects the whole body. To put it simply, scientists consider depression not only a mental, but also a physical disorder.
The researchers selected 4,000 volunteers and studied their health, and as a result, the analyzes confirmed their assumption - it turned out that prolonged mental disorders lead to the accumulation of harmful substances in the muscle tissues, which in turn provoke the development of oncology and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, protracted depression reduces the work of immunity, which is beneficial for the development of pathogenic flora, and contributes to a decrease in life expectancy.
The scientists made their conclusions after an in-depth analysis of 30 research papers.
Depressive disorders, as already mentioned, can cause suicide, and scientists note that this is due to hormonal changes in the body - lowering the level of hormones leads to apathy, a bad mood, a person loses the ability to rejoice, in such a state to commit suicide for a person not will be a lot of work.
According to the research group, their research will help to develop not only new effective methods for treating depressive disorders, but also create drugs to prevent this disorder.
In another project, scientists suggested that depression can be inherited. This idea was prompted by the similarity of the brain between mother and daughter. According to static data, in the United States, about 8% of teenagers over 12 years old suffer from depressive disorders, in addition, it is not uncommon for children and their mothers to suffer from this ailment.
An earlier study found that stress during pregnancy affects the structure of the fetal brain of the female sex, namely the cortico-limbic system, which helps to assess the degree of danger involved in the processing and regulation of emotions. Changes in this system are observed with depression, stress, an increased sense of anxiety.
Scientists studied 35 families and came to the conclusion that structural changes in the brain can be transmitted from mother to daughter. In the course of the work, scientists measured the amount of gray matter with the cortico-limbic system of the mother and daughter, which made it possible to reveal the similarity between their brain structures. The next stage of the scientists will be the study of the brain of parents and children, which were conceived with the help of the method of extracorporeal fertilization.
[