Sclerosis - Related Brain Inflammation May Cause Depression: A Study
Inflammation of the brain associated with sclerosis may be causing depression, according to research. Patients with multiple sclerosis have seen higher rates of depression - compared to the general population. Abnormal immune response, one of the characteristic symptoms of multiple sclerosis, is also linked to depression. Researchers believe this may be a shared pathological mechanism, which helps explain the link between multiple sclerosis and rates of depression. The results add evidence to support that inflammation of the hippocampus alters its function and contributes to depressive symptoms. Hippocampus is involved in the maintenance of depression and the pathology of multiple sclerosis. The researchers combined two complementary brain imaging techniques to study the relationship between hippocampal immune response, functional connections, and depressive symptoms in 13 multiple sclerosis patients and 22 healthy controls. Imaging techniques i...