Can Depression Stifle Response to a Common Vaccine?
A
paper was recently published that investigates how patients suffering from
major depression may respond to a specific vaccine. The authors studied the
connection between this mental health disorder and the immune response to the varicella
zoster virus vaccine. The varicella virus is more commonly known as virus that
causes the chickenpox. It is an interesting virus because following infection;
it remains inactive in the infected individual’s sensory neurons. In other
words, if you are infected with this virus it essentially hangs around in your
body and can re-infect you at a later time. If this re-infection does proceed
via reactivation and replication, then it can lead to Herpes zoster (HZ),
otherwise known as shingles. Shingles is a fairly well known syndrome that is
characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters. Each year, there are more
than a million new cases of shingles each year. The main risk factor for developing
this type of viral infection is age. The incidence and severity of shingles
increases with age.
As of yet, the main other
identified risk factor is a low level of VZV-specific T cell-mediated immunity.
VZV-specific T cell-mediated immunity is basically a measurement of how ready
your immune system is to responding to varicella reactivation. A “higher” level
of this immunity means your body is more capable of fighting off the dreaded
shingles infection. Post-varicella infection, your body is able to develop and
maintain this immunity. So although the virus that causes shingles may be
hanging around in your neurons, waiting to attack, your body’s natural defenses
are often ready to fight back.
