US NEWS & WORLD REPORT: What’s the Connection Between Brain Inflammation and Suicidal Thoughts?

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“Brain microglia aren’t activated under normal, healthy conditions,” says Dr. Peter S. Talbot, a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the Wolfson Molecular Imaging Centre at the University of Manchester in the U.K. and a co-author of the study. The study found “strong confirmatory evidence for the presence of microglial activation, and hence neuro-inflammation, during a serious depressive episode,” he says. The results, in fact, replicate a prior report that major depressive disorder patients showed evidence of inflammation in three brain regions involved in mood regulation: the anterior cingulate cortex, insula and prefrontal cortex.