The Inflamed Mind: A Radical new Approach to Depression is Professor Ed Bullmore’s game-changing book exploring the link between depression and inflammation of the body and brain.
At Hay Festival today he said, depression is set to become the biggest single cause of disability and this means one in four people will have an episode of depression at some time in their life.
He said despite the huge numbers of people who will experience depression, “there has been little therapeutic progress in 30 year.”
The eminent Cambridge University scientist and psychiatrist has been exploring a new avenue of research in which treatments could be specifically targetted to reduce bodily inflammation which in turn could reduce depression.
He said that research suggest there is a strong link between inflammation and depression and that if that is the case we are on the cusp of a revolution in terms of new approaches to dealing with the illness.
Bullmore was keen to make clear that some of the existing drugs designed to help depression did work for some people, but that this exciting new development may have wide-ranging impact not just on depression but on mental health treatment generally.
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