How the Immune System Influences Suicidality
The article that I chose is addressing the topic of a possible
relationship between the body’s immune system, inflammatory chemicals and
suicidality within an individual. The article expands on the possible
biological causes of suicidality in individuals. The author speaks on how
certain personality traits, environmental and social hardships can have an
impact on suicidal thoughts. The immune system, however, may have an impact on
both depression and suicidality. Treatments for certain types of cancers combat
the illness by enhancing immune responses within the body. It is pointed out
that these medications may have an adverse impact and actually “increase the
risk of depression and suicidal thinking.” Disorders and illnesses that fall
into the autoimmune classification (such as lupus and multiple sclerosis) are
correlated with suicidal behaviors. These disorders attack the brain and
increase these suicidal thoughts. The author discusses how even medications
proven to decrease suicidal thoughts have an effect on the immune system. Both
lithium and ketamine, both drugs that help reduce suicidality, either block or
decrease immune-related chemicals. It could be that these immune-related
chemicals are actually increasing suicidality within the brains of individuals.
The article “How the Immune System Influences Suicidality”
elaborated on an interesting theory as to whether suicidality has a biological
and neurological component to it as opposed to completely psychological. The
article was hinting at one general statement: if immune-related chemicals in
the brain can be decreased, then suicidal thoughts along with depressive
thoughts may actually decrease. I am vacillating between two courses of thought.
The first one is that this theory, supported by a good amount of evidence, can
possibly be life-saving for some people. It can even catch individuals who are
more predisposed to suicidality and depressive thinking before they even
experience any of those symptoms. Treatments for individuals already suffering
from suicidal thoughts would be able to be altered to include a neurological
component; physicians or doctors would be able to interact directly with these
chemicals within the brain and combat the suicidality directly. However
encouraging this is, one has to look at the other side. What are the possible
consequences of decreasing an individual’s immune chemicals? Would they in turn
be more susceptible to other dangers facing the human body? Even if
immune-related chemicals are shown to have a direct correlation with suicidal
thoughts, it cannot possibly be the only factor contributing to individuals
having these thoughts. So, even if this neurological solution is explored, we
still need to address this problem on a psychological and social front.
This was pretty interesting to read. I definitely look forward to seeing how this plays out in the future. If there is any possible way we could decrease depression and suicidal ideation/tendencies through the biological perspective that would be thoroughly amazing. It will take much more research to even get close, however.
ReplyDeleteI did have one question/confusion about the study. It has been shown that depression is prone to causing people's general health to decline, sometimes significantly. I would like to see in the future how they would determine that it was the immune system causing the depression and not the depression causing problems with the immune system.
This was interesting to read! I'm not sure I necessarily agree with the immune system having an effect on depression and/or suicidal thoughts. I personally think it is the other way around. I say this because I have experienced this. During periods when my depression was extremely bad, I noticed I would get sick more often. It really is so crazy how chemicals affect different areas of the body. When looking at suicidal thoughts compared with depression, depending on the severity and desire to go through with it, the mood would increase because that person has accepted going through with the action. This would make me believe that in this case the immune system would not have a negative effect, that it would not really cause for an increase or decrease of suicidality. I am trying to wrap my head around those who have less of an immune system get sicker and feel weaker, but do not necessarily show signs or symptoms of depression.
ReplyDeleteFurther research on this topic may have beneficial evidence.
It seems as though there are a million reasons depression, suicidal thoughts/ideology, and other mood disorders can develop. That being said, I can definitely understand how it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that the functioning of the immune system could cause depression or suicidal thinking. Similar to a previous commenter, I've also struggled with depression and was at one time hospitalized for suicidal actions. During that time I was very, very sick both mentally and physically. I had flu-like symptoms for almost the entire time I was in the hospital as well as gastrointestinal pain and this was well before I was put on any medications. I believe it is plausible to think there may be a correlation between the immune system and suicidal thinking/actions however, I am not entirely sold that suicide is more biological than psychological in nature.
ReplyDeleteI have never given this much thought but after thinking about it and reading this article, I can see how the body's innate biological structure can have an affect on whether or not someone could be suicidal. Just as there is a nature vs. nurture debate, one could reason that suicidality could have roots both in biology and in the events that affect us daily. Although after learning in class about how certain desires such and motivation or hunger have deep biological roots, I don't see why suicidal thoughts and actions couldn't be rooted within our innate biological systems as well. This is a very intriguing and captivating subject matter!
ReplyDelete