Immunopsychiatry: Investigating the role of inflammation in depression and other psychiatric disorders

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Mental illnesses affect one in four people in the lifetime, but current treatments for depression are ineffective for up to one in three people. Therefore, there is an urgent need for developing new and more targeted treatments. Our research focuses on the role of inflammation (overactivity of one component of the immune system) in depression to better understand how this condition develops and in whom. We use large-scale population data on psychiatric symptoms, genetic make-up, and blood-based biomarkers to examine whether: i) inflammation could be a cause for depression; ii) possible side effects of supressing immune pathways; iii) inflammation could be a common cause for >1 psychiatric conditions; and iv) there are inflammation related subgroup(s) within depression. Answers to these questions will help us to develop new and more targeted treatment for depression.