Antibiotics ‘help treat depression’

ANTIBIOTICS could be used to treat certain forms of depression, say British researchers.

Doctors at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation recruited 39 patients suffering ‘treatment-resistant’ depression and gave half of them the antibiotic minocycline. While not all of them responded to the antibiotic, others showed improvement in symptoms.

Minocycline is an immune systemsuppressant and experts believe people with severe depression suffer inflammation in the brain, which can be triggered by the immune system. The patients on the trial with higher levels of inflammation showed greater improvement in depressive symptoms when given minocycline.