Depression, mental health and rebellion against the immune system

Introduction: The concept of mental health includes various aspects of our emotional, psychological and socialwell-being, such as our way of thinking, feeling, how we behave when facing life events, how we manage stress,how we relate to others and our decisions throughout life. Our research is on the problem of depression. Thedescribed disorder is chronic feelings, sadness and despair and lack of interests or pleasures in the activities thatare performed. The immune system is a large network of organs, white blood cells, proteins (antibodies) andchemicals. These systems work together to protect the host from foreign invaders such as bacteria, viruses,parasites, and fungi that cause infection and disease.Methods: In this review article, by searching the international and national databases of Google Scholar andPubMed until ۲۰۲۲ and using the keywords depression, mental health and immune system.Results: By searching these data, more than ۳۰ articles were reviewed and about ۲۰ of them were studied andretrieved. Evaluations have shown that approximately ۶% of people suffer from depression at least once in theirlifetime, which is an important factor in The emergence of some social, cultural and family problems isconsidered. According to the World Health Organization, in ۲۰۲۰, the disabilities caused by depression rankedsecond among all diseases, and it is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the world. Some studies havesuggested a relationship between depression and changes in the immune system. Thus, compared to otherbabies, the babies of depressed mothers had a significant decrease in IgM and an increase in lymphocytes. Meeset al (۱۹۹۲), during their research on ۲۲ healthy people and ۱۰۹ patients with depression, concluded that thenumber of leukocytes in the patients to depression, it has increased significantly. Kronful et al (۱۹۸۴). havereported neutrophilia and lymphopenia in depressed patients. Today, interdisciplinary research is being done inpsychoneuroimmunology.Conclusion: Undoubtedly, understanding the interactions of the immune and nervous system and its effects onphysical and mental health is of great importance. The science of psychoneuroimmunology explains howdepression affects the weakness of the immune system. How it changes the immunological parameters and howthe body functions against Various infections weakens. Studies on depression and its harmful effects on theimmune system are growing rapidly. Today, it can be understood as follows: depression is a rebellion againstthe immune system.

کلیدواژه ها:

Depression ، mental health ، immune system