Autoimmune Disease and Infections: Messing With Your Mood

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – A recent Danish study examining individuals with mood disorders suggests that the risk of being diagnosed with a mood disorder is higher if the person has been hospitalized in the past for infection or autoimmune disease. This leads researchers to believe that certain infections and autoimmune disease are risk factors for later mood disorders.
Using information collected from 91,637 people who visited a hospital for a mood disorder, researchers then identified which of these people had been to the hospital for an infection or autoimmune disease. Having a past infection was associated with a 62% increased risk of developing a subsequent mood disorder while autoimmune disease was associated with a 45% increased risk.
For more information, go to http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1696348.
SOURCE: JAMA Psychiatry, June 2013