Mental stress causes inflammation. Can this lead to depression? Hans Neleman/Getty
WHEN a powerful new arthritis medicine called Remicade was first given to patients at a London hospital, the nurses noticed an unexpected side effect. The infusion made people so cheerful, all the staff wanted to be the one to set up the drip. They called it the “Remicade high”.
The medicine works by blocking a signalling molecule in the blood called TNF. It was designed to calm the inflammation behind arthritis, so why should it affect people’s mood?
This puzzling observation is just one clue that the state of…
