Are Chronic Inflammation and Its Metabolic Counterpart, Insulin Resistance, the Common Denominators for All Chronic Behavior and Neurodegenerative Disorders? A Review of the Evidence – Part IV

Depression – Is It Truly an Inflammatory Illness? Of all the behavioral and neurodegenerative disorders considered so far in this series, there is no question that, from a clinical standpoint, the one that seems to be most prevalent and, judging from the use of SSRIs in this country, generating the most concern, is depression. Of course, depression as a clinical concern among both allopathic and alternative practitioners is nothing new. Allopaths, as noted above, have been dealing with depression with highly variable levels of success for years, mainly with SSRIs. Unfortunately, studies continue to be published, one as recently as the time of the writing of this newsletter (June 8, 2016), increasingly questioning the efficacy of SSRIs. In “Comparative efficacy and tolerability of antidepressants for major depressive disorder in children and adolescents: a network meta-analysis” by Cipriani et al1 the authors state: