re: Scientists: Depression is a physical illness

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Found the Marine corpsman!

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Something tells me the next study/article will show its just not that simple a fix after all.

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There's 840 million people in Britain?

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Mental Health May Depend on Creatures in the Gut The microbiome may yield a new class of psychobiotics for the treatment of anxiety, depression and other mood disorders By Charles Schmidt on March 1, 2015

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The ongoing exploration of the human microbiome promises to bring the link between the gut and the brain into clearer focus. Scientists are increasingly convinced that the vast assemblage of microfauna in our intestines may have a major impact on our state of mind. The gut-brain axis seems to be bidirectional—the brain acts on gastrointestinal and immune functions that help to shape the gut's microbial makeup, and gut microbes make neuroactive compounds, including neurotransmitters and metabolites that also act on the brain. These interactions could occur in various ways: microbial compounds communicate via the vagus nerve, which connects the brain and the digestive tract, and microbially derived metabolites interact with the immune system, which maintains its own communication with the brain. Sven Pettersson, a microbiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has recently shown that gut microbes help to control leakage through both the intestinal lining and the blood-brain barrier, which ordinarily protects the brain from potentially harmful agents.

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Bercik and Collins segued into gut-brain research from their initial focus on how the microbiome influences intestinal illnesses. People who suffer from these conditions often have co-occurring psychiatric problems such as anxiety and depression that cannot be fully explained as an emotional reaction to being sick. By colonizing germ-free mice with the bowel contents of people with irritable bowel syndrome, which induces constipation, diarrhea, pain and low-grade inflammation but has no known cause, the McMaster's team reproduced many of the same gastrointestinal symptoms. The animals developed leaky intestines, their immune systems activated, and they produced a barrage of pro-inflammatory metabolites, many with known nervous system effects. Moreover, the mice also displayed anxious behavior, as indicated in a test of their willingness to step down from a short raised platform.

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“It’s pretty clear that inflammation can cause depression,” he told a briefing in London to coincide with this week’s Academy of Medical Sciences FORUM annual lecture which has brought together government the NHS and academics to discuss the issue.

“In relation to mood, beyond reasonable doubt, there is a very robust association between inflammation and depressive symptoms. We give people a vaccination and they will become depressed. Vaccine clinics could always predict it, but they could never explain it.

“The question is does the inflammation drive the depression or vice versa or is it just a coincidence?

“In experimental medicine studies if you treat a healthy individual with an inflammatory drug, like interferon, a substantial percentage of those people will become depressed. So we think there is good enough evidence for a causal effect.”

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Hopefully this is accurate. Be nice to have a safer alternative.

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perhaps it's not anxiety, but rather nervousness?

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