Posted by psychobot5000 on January 10, 2009, at 23:41:09
In reply to Antibiotic (doxycycline) treatment for depression, posted by SLS on January 7, 2009, at 7:46:40
Let me approach this from a slightly different angle. I know a patient, mid twenties I guess, who like many of us here has severe depression. The two outstanding areas of his health (as far as i know) are this depression and...severe allergies to a vast assortment of things: cats, pollen, you name it. And he says his mood gets worse on 'bad allergen days.'
Well, don't allergies cause inflammation in various areas of the body--granted, focused on the lungs, nose or wherever peripheral contact is made, but I'm pretty sure I've read that allergens tend to penetrate deep within the body as well. Mightn't some allergens get to the brain, and cause inflammation there? Might not the two outstanding aspects of this case (to an observer), i.e. the depression and his body's tendency to overreact to a wide variety of microscopic foreign bodies, be related? Well, in any case, I'm throwing the thought out there to see if it's useful at all. Severe Environmental allergies>>nervous system inflammation>>caused or exacerbated depression.
I suppose that allergy shots might be a theoretical way of trying to treat such a patient's depression...(based on the doxycycline hypothesis)... since they also suppress the inflammatory reaction.
Just a thought.
poster:psychobot5000
thread:872561
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090104/msgs/873273.html