New studies are suggesting a link between the immune system and the
way the body reacts to stress. Research with rodents are raising hopes
that one day, tweaking a person’s immune system could be a way to treat
or even prevent conditions like PTSD, Nature reports.
“I think there’s kind of a frenzy about inflammation in psychiatry right now,” says Christopher Lowry from the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Lowry and colleagues found a connection between the immune system and
stress in mice when they injected the rodents with a common bacterium
called Mycobacterium vaccae once a week for three weeks to
modulate their immune systems. These mice were tested against a group of
untreated mice by putting both in cages with larger animals. The
untreated mice were more timid, and later on they developed stress-based
reactions, such as an inflamed colon. Meanwhile, rodents who got the
immune system-boosting injection dealt with their aggressors more
confidently and looked healthier afterward. They were more proactive;
the others were simply surrounded.
Lowry’s team conducted a second experiment that reached a similar
conclusion. In this one, they treated rats with the same kind of
bacterium and also kept a control group of rats with untreated immune
systems. Lowry and colleagues trained both groups to associate a
particular sound with an electrical shock to the foot. Then, once the
rats knew to fear the sound, the researchers began to play the sound
without the pain. The treated rats learned not to be afraid much faster
than the untreated rats did.
These findings were presented at a meeting of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
earlier this month. And they seem to back up what many scientists
already suspected – and what early studies have already shown – about a
connection between the state of the immune system and mental
conditions, such as depression and PTSD. The connection also appeared in
studies involving members of the military, who are at a high risk for
PTSD. Those studies found that soldiers with higher levels of a
particular inflammatory protein are at a higher risk of developing the
disorder.
The big question now is whether the connections seen in these new
rodent studies also appear in humans, and whether that opens new avenues
for treating mental health via the immune system. We may soon find out:
University of Manchester’s Bill Deakin
is about to test whether treating schizophrenia patients with a drug
that fights brain inflammation can help to slow the development of the
disease.
2 Likes
This is so far away from being available to humans…at least 10 years.
Maybe, but it’s got to be better than putting electrodes into peoples brains!
This 10 minute youtube clip describes a cure for PTSD that’s currently in clinical trials. I personally have used the same method to treat my own paranoia, i.e. it works not just against PTSD but also against paranoia or infact any traumatic memory.