People with depression have a higher body temperature, suggesting that there may be a mental health benefit to lowering the temperature of patients with this mental disorder. This is according to a new study by experts from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) published in the scientific journal “Scientific Reports”.
The unanswered questions
However, the study does not answer whether depression increases body temperature or whether higher body temperature causes depression. It also remains unknown whether the high body temperature observed in depressed subjects indicates a reduced ability of their body to “self-cool”, increased heat production due to metabolic processes, or a combination of both.
The study
The researchers analyzed data involving more than 20,000 volunteers from 106 countries who wore a device that measured their body temperature. Participants also self-reported their perception of their body temperature as well as possible symptoms of depression. The seven-month study began in 2020.
New “warm” therapeutic pathway for depression
Based on the findings, for every increase in the level of severity of depressive symptoms, the volunteers’ body temperature also increased. These results shed light on a new potential therapeutic pathway against depression, she said Ashley Masonthe study’s lead author, an associate professor of psychiatry at UCSF’s Weill Institute for Neuroscience.
Jacuzzi or sauna against depressive symptoms
A small number of studies have shown that using a hot tub or sauna can reduce depressive symptoms, possibly by causing the body to lower its temperature through sweat. “It’s ironic that warming the human body can actually lead to a reduction in body temperature that lasts longer than cooling the body directly, such as through an ice bath,” noted Dr. Mason, adding: “Maybe we could monitor the body temperature of people with depression to apply heat-based treatments at the right time.”
The largest survey of its kind
The professor emphasized that “to our knowledge, this study is the largest to date examining the link between body temperature – assessed both through self-reports and wearable sensors – and depressive symptoms in such a large sample of individuals from so many parts of the world.” And he concluded by saying that given the ever-increasing rates of depression worldwide, the horizons opened up through the new “warm” therapeutic path are very promising.
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