We have a new clue about depression and we have found it in an unsuspected place: body temperature

Depression is something that goes beyond our brains. Like many other diseases, this psychological ailment is manifested in other aspects of our physiognomy. For example, in our body temperature.

Temperature and depression. A study has identified A relationship between body temperature and depression. The team responsible for the analysis observed a positive relationship between the variables, that is, that the appearance of depressive symptoms was linked to a higher body temperature among the participants.

The relationship was proportional. The severity of the symptoms, the greater the body temperatures were also. They also observed an apparent relationship between the variability of temperatures and depressive symptoms, but this did not show being statistically significant, so conclusions cannot be extracted in that aspect.

Beyond the statistical incidence is little What is known of this relationship. For example, the equipment indicated that it is still an enigma if this increase in body temperature could be due to a loss of control capacity, an increase in temperature generation through metabolic processes, or if it was a combination of factors.

More than 20,000 participants. To carry out the study, the team compiled information from 20,880 participants from 106 countries. During the study, which lasted for seven months in 2020, the participants carried a thermometer device to measure their body temperature and daily reported temperature and symptoms of depression.

“Let us know, this is the biggest study to examine the association between body temperature (measured both self -assess and through portable sensors) and depressive symptoms in a geographically wide sample,” explained in a press release Psychiatrist Ashley Mason, co -author of work. The study It was published in the magazine Scientific Reports.

An old suspicion. Although it is probably the most massive, this is not the first analysis that indicates this relationship. A study published in 2003 He pointed to the existence of this relationship and its possible link with the 5-HTT protein, the “serotonin transporter”.

Another important indication has to do with the drugs usually used in the treatment of depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI). In recent years, various studies have proven that these compounds reduce thermal tolerance of those who consume them. The main studies in this regard were analyzed In a literature review published in 2022.

Correlation and cause. The present study finds a link between temperature and depression but does not indicate the possible form of the causal direction, if there were. It is impossible to determine, through known data if depression causes an increase in body temperature or if a high body temperature can increase our risk of appearing depression.

Nor is it possible to rule out that there is an underlying cause of both that the analysis does not see: inflammatory stress or processes could independently cause both depressive symptomatology and an increase in body temperature.

Cold or heat as therapy? Understanding what is happening can help us better understand depression and, therefore, bring us closer to the tools we are looking for to fight it. Until now the heat had been used to improve the patient status. These types of therapies could make sense through a “rebound effect”, helping the body to recover its capacity for thermal self -regulation, Add the equipment.

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Image | Tankilevitch polyina

*An earlier version of this article was published in June 2024