The severity of the depressive state is affected by body temperature
Last reviewed: 07.06.2024
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Mental changes correlate with physiological changes. Many of us have experienced this - for example, when fear makes our feet and hands feel cold, or, conversely, we experience a hot flush. In their new study, scientists from the University of California determined that body temperature and the depth of depression are correlated.
The existence of such a relationship has long been suspected by scientific experts. However, earlier studies were insufficient or unreliable. The new work of scientists was more large-scale: more than twenty thousand participants aged 18 years and older from different countries of the world were involved. For seven months, the participants wore a device that measured body temperature. In addition, they had to measure their own temperature using an ordinary thermometer.
None of the participants had a diagnosis such as depression, or depressive state. However, all subjects underwent special testing to assess the recurrent occurrence, frequency, and severity of probable depressive episodes.
As it was found, symptoms of depression sometimes occurred in many people, and in almost all cases they were accompanied by a certain increase in body temperature indicators. The more severe the depression, the more the temperature rose. It is important to realize that the temperature values did not rise as high as we are accustomed to observe, for example, in infectious processes. The values varied within a few fractions of a degree, and this increase was recorded by special sensors.
Mental disorders are often associated with physiological changes, but they are not always the root cause. Researchers point to the existence of a relationship between depression and fever, but this does not mean that the latter is a consequence of the former, or vice versa. After all, we cannot exclude the presence of a third factor, or even several such factors.
Despite everything, the correlation is still present. Moreover, there is information that temperature exposure - be it a bath or a sauna - in some way alleviates the course of depression (confirmed by scientific testing). High temperature activates thermoregulatory mechanisms that activate the cooling response, which, in turn, levels out some adaptive processes that were activated against the background of increased temperature - including those that aggravate depression.
In any case, this information requires more careful further investigation. The likely physiological chain between changes in body temperature and the onset of depressive symptoms should be investigated in depth.
Published on Scientific reports