People living with an autoimmune disease are nearly twice as likely to suffer from mood problems like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder, a new large-scale study says.
The risk of mood disorders is 87% to 97% higher in people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and Graves' syndrome, researchers reported Tuesday in the BMJ Mental Health.
This risk remains higher even after accounting for other factors like age, income and family history of psychiatric disorders, researchers found.
"Together, these results support the hypothesis that exposure to chronic inflammation may be associated with a greater risk for affective disorders," concluded the research team led by Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots with the University of Edinburgh Center for Clinical Brain Sciences in Britain.
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