In a groundbreaking study that draws attention to the intersection between physiology and mental health, researchers have uncovered a link between depression and elevated body temperature. This discovery is scientific reportnot only improves our understanding of depression, but also suggests innovative treatments that may include regulating body temperature to alleviate symptoms of depression.
The motivation behind this study was rooted in the alarming rise in global depression rates and the urgent need for new treatments. Depression, particularly major depressive disorder (MDD), is rapidly increasing in prevalence across a variety of populations, particularly among adolescents and young adults in the United States.
This increase coincides with an increase in the use of antidepressants, despite their limitations in terms of their effectiveness. Identifying unique physiological characteristics of MDD patients may pave the way for the development of targeted treatments, especially for patients within biologically homogeneous subgroups.
The researchers used data from 20,880 people from the TemPredict Study for their study. The TemPredict Study is a prospective global cohort study initially designed to identify the onset of COVID-19 infection using physiological indicators collected by the Oura Ring wearable device. The TemPredict study spanned several months, with participants providing daily self-reported body temperature readings and completing monthly surveys assessing depression severity.
Ashley Mason, associate professor of psychiatry, said: “To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate an association between body temperature, assessed using both self-report methods and wearable sensors, and depressive symptoms in a geographically wide sample. “This is the largest study ever conducted.” at the Weill Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the study. “Given the rising incidence of depression in the United States, we are excited about the possibility of new treatments.”
The use of Oura Ring further increased the accuracy and continuity of the data collection process. This wearable device is worn on the finger and measures distal body temperature every minute, providing a continuous stream of data about the participant’s thermal status. This allowed researchers to analyze not only static temperature measurements, but also dynamic temperature changes throughout the day and night.
Researchers found that higher levels of depressive symptoms were consistently associated with higher body temperature. This correlation was observed across both self-reported data and minute-by-minute temperature data collected by Oura Ring. This pattern suggests a strong relationship between elevated body temperature and the presence of depressive symptoms, strengthening the hypothesis that temperature dysregulation may be involved in depression. Masu.
“While there are studies going back decades that have documented a correlation between depression and body temperature, those studies were often small, involving 10 to 20 people,” Mason says. “This study that we recently published shows this correlation in a much larger sample, and we look forward to further research into the mechanisms underlying this correlation.”
Additionally, analysis of wearable sensor data revealed subtle details about thermoregulatory patterns associated with depression. This study identified smaller differences in distal body temperature during wakefulness and sleep in people with more severe depressive symptoms. The findings indicate that depression can affect the body’s ability to regulate body temperature across different states of consciousness, affecting the natural cooling processes that promote sleep initiation and quality.
This consistency in body temperature increases, particularly during periods critical for thermoregulatory cooling, highlights the potential importance of body temperature as a physiological marker of depression.
Interestingly, this study also investigated the diurnal amplitude of distal body temperature, which refers to temperature changes between day and night. Participants with depression had lower diurnal temperature amplitudes, suggesting a blunted circadian rhythm of body temperature. This is consistent with previous studies showing circadian rhythm disruption in depression and provides further evidence of the complex relationship between sleep, thermoregulation, and mood disorders.
The researchers concluded that the mechanisms underlying the observed increases in body temperature in patients with depression may be a decreased ability of thermoregulatory cooling to induce cooling, increased metabolic heat production, or a combination of both. I paid attention to.
However, the results of this study do not prove a causal relationship between body temperature and depression. The study could not determine whether increased body temperature contributes to the onset or worsening of symptoms of depression, or whether depression causes increased body temperature due to changes in metabolic or thermoregulatory processes.
Future research directions include exploring the biological mechanisms underlying this association, investigating the potential of temperature-based interventions for depression, and investigating the impact of thermoregulatory control on depressive symptoms. It is included.
“This link is particularly appealing because we have data showing that when people recover from depression, their body temperature tends to normalize, regardless of how they recovered,” Mason said. explained. “We have since obtained new data suggesting that temperature-based interventions may reduce symptoms of depression.”
“For example, data shows that heat-based treatments, especially infrared saunas, cause a rapid increase in body temperature. These increases in body temperature act on the body’s self-cooling mechanisms (thinking, sweating), This can lead to subsequent hypothermia (sweating and lowering body temperature).”
“And one study showed that a decrease in body temperature over several days after a single heat treatment correlated with a reduction in symptoms of depression over the same period,” Mason continued. “What’s interesting here is that this link may work in multiple ways. What’s new is that we may be able to intervene directly with body temperature to address symptoms of depression.”
“Here at UCSF in the heart of San Francisco, we are actively researching heat therapy, specifically sauna therapy, as a body-based intervention for symptoms of depression. We are currently treating patients with clinical depression. A clinical trial is underway combining sauna therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy for depression in patients. Interested parties can learn more here: https://www.sealab.ucsf.edu/heatbedstudy”
the study, “Increased body temperature is associated with depressive symptoms: results from TemPredict study” is written by Ashley E. Mason, Patrick Kasul, Severin Soltani, Abigail Green, Wendy Hartogensis, Stefan Dilchart, Anushka Chaudhary, Reena S. Pandya, Chelsea J. Siwick, Simi L. Foster, Maren Nair, and Christopher A. Lowry. , Charles L. Raison, Frederick M. Hecht, and Benjamin L. Sumer.
