Psych Central News
Infections Linked to Mood Disorders Like Depression, Bipolar?
Specifically, investigators found that the risk of being diagnosed with a mood disorder increases by nearly two-thirds if a person had been admitted to hospital with an infection.
The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, is the largest of its kind to date to show a clear correlation between infection levels and the risk of developing mood disorders.
Mood disorders include serious mental illness, such as clinical depression and bipolar disorder.
Researchers theorize that an infection may lead to extended mental distress beyond an apparent physical recovery from the original illness. That is, an individual’s distress does not necessarily end once the infection has been treated.
“Our study shows that the risk of developing a mood disorder increases by 62 percent for patients who have been admitted to hospital with an infection.
“In other words, it looks as though the immune system is somehow involved in the development of mood disorders,” said researcher Michael Eriksen Benrós, M.D., Ph.D., of Aarhus University and Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen.
The study is a register study, which has involved following more than 3 million Danes. Between 1977 and 2010, more than 91,000 of these people were seen in a health facility for a mood disorder.
Thirty-two percent of the patients had previously been admitted with an infectious disease, while 5 percent had been admitted with an autoimmune disease.
According to Benrós, the increased risk of mood disorders can be explained by the fact that infections affect the brain:
“Normally, the brain is protected by the so-called blood-brain barrier (BBB), but in the case of infections and inflammation, new research has shown that the brain can be affected on account of a more permeable BBB.”
“We can see that the brain is affected, whichever type of infection or autoimmune disease it is. Therefore, it is naturally important that more research is conducted into the mechanisms which lie behind the connection between the immune system and mood disorders,” Benrós said.
Benros believes knowing more about this connection will help to prevent mood disorders and improve future treatment.
Depression is a mental disorder marked by severe bouts of depressed mood, sadness, lack of interest and pleasure in daily activities, lethargy, sleep problems, feelings of worthlessness and problems concentrating. Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder marked by mood swings that go from depression, to mania or hypomania.
Source: Aarhus University
Early Exposure to Violence May Lead to Aggression in Kids
“People may think children that young are passive and unaware, but they pay attention to what’s happening around them,” said Megan Holmes, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.
Between three and 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence each year, say experts from the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence.
Holmes said researchers know the impact of recent exposure to violence, but little information has been available about the long-term effect from the early years of life.
To her knowledge, she said her study is the first to look at the effect of early exposure to domestic violence and its impact on the development of social behavior.
In the study, Holmes analyzed the behavior of 107 children exposed to interpersonal violence in their first three years but never again after age 3. The outcomes of those children were compared to 339 children who were never exposed.
Those studied were from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), which included children reported to Child Protective Services for abuse or neglect. The children’s behavior was followed four times over the course of five years.
Holmes’s research, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, examined the timing, duration and nature of their exposure to violence and how it affected aggressive behavior.
Holmes found no behavioral differences between those who did or did not witness violence between the ages of 3 and 5, but children exposed to violence increased their aggression when they reached school age.
And the more frequently such violence was witnessed, the more aggressive the behaviors became.
Meanwhile, children never exposed to interpersonal violence gradually decreased in aggression.
Learning that observing violence can have a delayed effect on children is important for social workers assessing the impact on children in homes with domestic violence, Holmes said.
“The delay also gives social workers a window of opportunity between ages 3 and 5 to help the children socialize and learn what is appropriate behavior,” said Holmes, who has worked with mothers and children in domestic violence shelters.
Experts recommend play therapy and art therapy to help children work through the violence they were exposed to.
Holmes said her overarching goal is to contribute to optimal development of children who have been exposed to interpersonal violence “by identifying risk and protective factors that will be translated into interventions,” she said.
Source: Case Western Reserve
Child listening to parents fighting photo by shutterstock.
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