BEWARE THE POST-VACCINE BLUES
Beware the Post-Vaccine Blues
by Brenna McMannon art by Darling Garcia
H
ave you ever had the post-vaccine blues? It’s hard to imagine that such a minor experience could manage to impact your mental health. However, in recent years, evidence has emerged supporting a possible link between bodily inflammation and depression. This idea — that inflammation, the body’s natural response to injury, can have a psychological impact — has expanded our perception of mental health, adding to the enigma of the human brain. The mystery of the brain has made mental health, and depression specifically, incredibly hard to study and even harder to treat. This is mainly due to the fact that no one brain region or molecule has been identified as the sole cause of major depressive disorder (MDD), despite the fact that about 21% of women and 12% of men in the United States alone will experience depressive symptoms at some point in their lives [5]. This gap in understanding poses a real threat to people suffering from MDD across the world. However, recent research suggests a link between bodily inflammation and depression, expanding our
34
understanding of the many causes of depression and aiding in the development of treatments. Before we get into that, let’s explore our existing knowledge of depression.
DEPRESSION: WHAT WE KNOW Many of the key players in depression are concentrated in the limbic system: the set of brain structures involved in emotion and memory. Despite this knowledge of where depression occurs in the brain, the treatment of depression doesn’t focus on these brain regions; rather, it targets the tiny chemicals that send messages between them. Yes, I’m talking about neurotransmitters, the famous chemical messengers of the brain. Brain cells called neurons send signals to one another via neurotransmitters. Therefore, the amount of neurotransmitters being produced are important to their functionality, because having too little or too many can cause problems.
GREY MATTERS JOURNAL AT VASSAR COLLEGE | ISSUE 2
