An unusual therapy for depression arrives: jacuzzis or saunas to lower body temperature

People with depression have a higher body temperature. This is confirmed by a study led by the University of California in San Francisco (USA) that suggests that reducing the body temperature of people with depression could become a treatment for this disease. It is estimated that depressive disorder affects almost 40 million people of all ages in Europe and is one of the main causes of disability. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression will become the most important disease in Europe and around the world in 2030. However, the study, published in ‘Scientific Reports’, does not determine whether depression raises temperature or if a higher temperature causes depression. He also notes that it is unknown whether the fact that people with depression have a higher body temperature reflects a reduced ability to cool themselves, greater heat generation from metabolic processes, or a combination of both. Related News standard No Depression and work: three pillars that help prevent it from emerging in ABC teams Mariola Fernández, Clinical Manager of the Affor Health Psychology HUB, explains the variables that must be addressed in teams of professionals to tackle the behaviors that can lead to mental health problems The research has analyzed data from more than 20,000 participants from a total of 106 countries who wore a device that measures body temperature and who reported daily on their body temperature and symptoms of depression. The results showed that there was a relationship between body temperature and the severity of depression; Thus, for each increasing degree of severity of depression symptoms, participants had higher body temperatures. The findings shed light on how a new approach to treating depression might work, says Ashley Mason, the study’s lead author and a professor at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. Jacuzzis or saunas The researcher assures that there have already been a small set of existing causal studies that have found that the use of jacuzzis or saunas can reduce depression, possibly by causing the body to cool itself, for example, through sweating. “Ironically, warming people can actually lead to a decrease in body temperature that is more effective than simply cooling people directly, such as through an ice bath,” explains Mason. “What if we could track the body temperature of people with depression to properly time heat-based treatments?” Mason asks. “To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date examining the association between body temperature (assessed using self-report methods and wearable sensors) and depressive symptoms in a geographically large sample,” Mason added. “Given the rising rates of depression, we are excited about the possibilities of a new avenue of treatment.”