How Untreated Depression Changes the Brain Over Time

Leaving depression untreated for too long may lead to neurodegenerative levels of brain inflammation, a recent study found. While the right amount of brain inflammation protects us from disease and helps repair the brain when it’s injured, “[g]reater inflammation in the brain is a common response with degenerative brain diseases as they progress, such as with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease,” said senior study author Dr. Jeff Meyer of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) at the University of Toronto. Dr. Meyer and his colleagues found increased protein in brains of people with depression, including in the prefrontal cortex, the brain area central to reasoning and other executive functions.

Read more at Psychology Today.