Recent research from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has revealed a significant link between depression and body temperature, offering fresh perspectives on possible treatment approaches.
Over the course of seven months, data from 20,880 people in 106 countries was gathered and examined for the study. According to the research, some people may have greater body temperatures than others when they are depressed.
The study is among the biggest to investigate this field because earlier research was sometimes constrained by small sample sizes. The association found may pave the way for more research, even if the UCSF study does not conclusively demonstrate that depression causes elevated body temperature or that depression causes elevated body temperature.
The findings shed light on how a novel depression treatment method might work, said Ashley Mason, PhD, the study's lead author and associate professor of psychiatry at UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. A small body of existing, causal studies has found that using hot tubs or saunas can reduce depression, possibly by triggering the body to self-cool, for example, through sweating.
"Ironically, heating people up actually can lead to rebound body temperature lowering that lasts longer than simply cooling people down directly, as through an ice bath," said Mason, who is also a clinical psychologist at the UCSF Osher Centre for Integrative Health. "What if we can track the body temperature of people with depression to time heat-based treatments well?"
"To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date to examine the association between body temperature-assessed using both self-report methods and wearable sensors-and depressive symptoms in a geographically broad sample," added Mason. "Given the climbing rates of depression in the United States, we're excited by the possibilities of a new avenue for treatment."
This new connection may result in easy ways to treat the symptoms of depression. The treatment of millions of people worldwide may change if more research confirms the notion that cooling therapy may help those suffering from depression.
