Depression: body and brain.

摘要

This issue of Biological Psychiatry is entitled "Medical Consequences and Contributions to Depression" and in-cludes several reports that describe relationships between depression or symptoms of depressed mood and somatic changes outside the central nervous system. These reports add to a body of research suggesting that depression adversely affects overall health outcomes in a variety of ways and, conversely, that systemic illness and chronic stress can have negative consequences and long-term sequelae in the brain, including symptoms of depression. Together they speak to the complex interrelationship between depression and overall health. Additionally, they raise important questions about how we understand depression as a medical illness and about the role of studying the body outside the central nervous system as part of a research strategy in depression and other brain disorders.