Dr. Gina L. Nick, President of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association, practicing Naturopathic Medical Doctor, and leading integrative medical research scientist, identified Sickness Syndrome depression and the mechanisms involved that link inflammation in the brain to depression. 

Dedicating the past ten years to researching the relationship between stress, inflammation and depression, Dr. Nick, in an unexpected and inspired series of medical discoveries, identified the mechanisms involved in Sickness Syndrome depression.

The incidence of Sickness Syndrome depression was first noted when patients treated with recombinant cytokines as an immunotherapy displayed mood disorders and cognitive disturbances atypical of the symptoms of the sickness being treated. These non-specific symptoms are directly caused by peripheral inflammatory cytokines that trigger the local production of inflammatory cytokines in the brain, namely IL-1 and TNF alpha , and most often specifically develop in patients suffering from somatic diseases with an inflammatory component such as cancer, coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, cancer, stroke and various neuropathologies.

However Dr. Nick also discovered that Sickness Syndrome can be triggered by other illnesses and conditions, such as chronic stress, adrenal fatigue, blood sugar imbalance, obesity, infection, and estrogen deficiency, all of which increase the production of peripheral inflammatory cytokines and weaken the body’s ability to function at its optimum level.

Listen to scientific presentations and published research articles by Dr. Nick regarding the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of this prevalent cause of depression and anxiety in a large subset of the population.