Clinical Immunology is slowly But Surely Stepping Up

​Val's Take/Conjecture

• Over 100 years ago medical researchers began speculating about a role for the Immune System in psychiatric disorders.
• Now with better technology those suppositions are proving to be true.
• Especially in the last 10 to 15 years--- the research linking neuro-developmental and psychiatric disorders to the Immune System has exploded.

• When we talk about integrating Physical and Mental Health
  • ​What does that Care Team look like?​
• We're talking about idiosyncratic Neuro-Immune Disorders that impact multiple systems of the body.

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• What are the ramifications of these new understandings for people who are Homeless and/or Justice-Involved?

​​THE HISTORY OF LINKING THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS

​The immune system and psychiatric disease: a basic science perspective (2019)

​Editorial: Peripheral Markers of Immune Response in Major Psychiatric Disorders: Where Are We Now and Where Do We Want to Be? (2019)

​Conventional and new immunotherapies for immune system dysregulation in postpartum mood disorders: comparisons to immune system dysregulations in bipolar disorder, major depression, and postpartum autoimmune thyroid disease.  (2025)

​Abstract

Introduction: Postpartum mood disorders are heterogenous disorders and comprise postpartum psychosis and postpartum depression.

Evidence is accumulating that systemic monocyte/macrophage activation, low-grade inflammation and (premature senescence related) T cell defects increase the risk for mood disorders outside pregnancy by affecting the function of microglia and T cells in the emotional brain (the cortico-limbic system) leading to inadequate mood regulation upon stress.

​Areas covered: The evidence in the literature that similar immune dysregulations are present in postpartum mood disorders.

Results: The physiological postpartum period is characterized by a rapid T cell surge and a mild activation of the monocyte/macrophage system.

Postpartum mood disorder patients show a diminished T cell surge (including that of T regulatory cells) and an increase in low grade inflammation, that is, an increased inflammatory state of monocytes/macrophages and higher levels of serum pro-inflammatory cytokines.

Expert opinion: Anti-inflammatory agents (e.g. COX-2 inhibitors) and T cell boosting agents (e.g. low-dose IL-2 therapy) should be further investigated as treatment.

​The hypothesis should be investigated that postpartum mood disorders are active episodes (triggered by changes in the postpartum immuno-endocrine milieu) in ongoing, dynamically fluctuating aberrant neuro-immune-endocrine trajectories leading to mood disorders in women (inheritably) vulnerable to these disorders.