Depression provokes the development of arthritis
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In Switzerland, a group of scientists managed to establish that depression is dangerous for physical health, and not just for psycho-emotional, as previously thought. Studies have shown that depression is dangerous not only for the human psyche, but also for its physical health. First of all, experts warn of the dangers of developing arthritis and arthrosis, as well as other joint diseases.
The results of his scientific work in this area scientists published in one of the scientific journals ("Borders of Public Health").
The study involved about 15 thousand people, starting from the age of 15. As a result, it was found that, on average, one third of participants with a diagnosis of depression had at least one physical pathology. Among the patients with depression, inflammatory diseases of the joints (arthritis, arthrosis) were especially frequent.
In Switzerland, the most developed health care system in Europe and it is rightfully considered the best in the world, but despite this, annually in this country experts diagnose depression in more than 400,000 patients. Thanks to a new study, scientists can confidently say that there is a relationship between the development of depression and physical pathologies.
By what principle is the mental state associated with the development of physical pathologies so long as scientists can not say, but presumably, because depression affects the psychological and emotional state, a person has lost the desire to engage in not only sports, but in general go out and that to do something. In a state of depression a person closes in himself and leads a low-activity lifestyle, which leads to the development of degenerative-inflammatory diseases of the joints.
In order to understand the exact mechanism, the researchers will have to conduct several additional studies, which they plan to start in the near future. This study will help more than 300 million. People all over the world who annually diagnose depressive mental disorders.
Depression is a rather dangerous mental illness, which without treatment can lead to suicide. In one of the research centers it was previously established that the degree of inflammation of the brain in people with clinical depression is increased by 30%.
Experts scanned the brain to healthy patients and patients with signs of depression.
Experts noted that earlier attention was paid to markers of inflammation in the blood, but a new study proved that similar processes occur in the brain.
With the development of a depressed state in the human brain, there are microglia - special cells of the nervous system, which become the cause of inflammatory processes. According to experts, the inflammation of the brain only aggravates the suppressed psychological state that is observed during the depression. This discovery will allow specialists to develop new methods for treating depression and other mental illnesses.