Repeat after me, correlation is not causation.
this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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What do you mean. The summary and the first paragraph are totally not in contradiction:
People with depression have higher body temperatures, suggesting there could be a mental health benefit to lowering the temperatures of those with the disorder, a new UC San Francisco-led study found.
The study, publishing today in Scientific Reports, doesn't indicate whether depression raises body temperature or a higher temperature causes depression. It's also unknown whether the higher body temperature observed in people with depression reflects decreased ability to self-cool, increased generation of heat from metabolic processes or a combination of both.
Anxiety is linked to lowered body temperature via the fight or flight response.
I have lower than normal temperature and depression... check-mate?
Ditto. I'm always sitting at 97.1F
People are colder now, looking like maybe around 97.9 average. But you're still chillier than most.
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It's also unknown whether the higher body temperature observed in people with depression reflects decreased ability to self-cool, increased generation of heat from metabolic processes or a combination of both.
The results showed that with each increasing level of depression symptom severity, participants had higher body temperatures.
The findings shed light on how a novel depression treatment method might work, said Ashley Mason, PhD, the study's lead author and associate professor of psychiatry at UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.
"Ironically, heating people up actually can lead to rebound body temperature lowering that lasts longer than simply cooling people down directly, as through an ice bath," said Mason, who is also a clinical psychologist at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health.
"To our knowledge, this is the largest study to date to examine the association between body temperature -- assessed using both self-report methods and wearable sensors -- and depressive symptoms in a geographically broad sample," added Mason.
"Given the climbing rates of depression in the United States, we're excited by the possibilities of a new avenue for treatment."
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