Summary: Novel Link Between Depression and Higher Body Temperatures
A new UCSF-led study suggests a connection between depression and higher body temperatures, with data from over 20,000 participants worldwide. While the causal relationship remains unclear, findings indicate that body temperature increases with the severity of depression symptoms. The research, leveraging wearable technology for temperature measurement, hints at the benefits of heat-based treatments like saunas for depression, potentially by inducing the body to lower temperatures through mechanisms like sweating.
Key Facts:
- The study observed a correlation between increased depression symptom severity and higher body temperatures in participants from 106 countries.
- It explored the potential of heat-based treatments (e.g., saunas) to reduce depression by triggering the body’s natural cooling responses.
- This research is one of the largest to examine the association between body temperature and depression symptoms, utilizing wearable sensors and self-reported data.
Source: UCSF
People with depression have higher body temperatures, suggesting there could be a mental health benefit to lowering the temperatures of those with the disorder, a new UC San Francisco-led study found.
The study, published today in Scientific Reports, doesn’t indicate whether depression raises body temperature or a higher temperature causes depression. It’s also unknown whether the higher body temperature observed in people with depression reflects decreased ability to self-cool, increased generation of heat from metabolic processes, or a combination of both.
Opinion as a Psychiatrist
As a psychiatrist, I find the findings of this study to be very intriguing. The potential link between body temperature and depression opens up new possibilities for novel treatment approaches. If heat-based treatments like saunas can indeed help reduce depression symptoms by triggering the body’s natural cooling mechanisms, it could provide a promising avenue for future therapeutic interventions. However, more research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms and establish a clear causal relationship between body temperature and depression.
Dr Landon Thompson, MD, Cure of Mind