Schedule of Events | Symposia

The prevalence of allergy and other inflammatory disorder in those with treatment-resistant depressive symptoms

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Megan Johnson¹ (mej4003@med.cornell.edu), Megan Chang¹, Jolin Chou¹, Claire Ho¹, Indira Summerville¹, Immanuel Elbau¹, Benjamin Zebley¹, Conor Liston¹, Lindsay Victoria¹; ¹Weill Cornell Medicine

Previous research supports a complex interaction between the immune system and mood disorders. The hypothalamus, which acts as the junction between the nervous, immune, and neuroendocrine system, may be of particular interest in investigating the link between immune system dysfunction and clinical and cognitive symptoms of mood disorders. This link is particularly relevant to major depressive disorder (MDD); the hypothalamus has been shown to play a role in key depressive symptoms, including deficits in sleep, appetite, and goal-directed behaviors. Using a sample of 245 participants with treatment-resistant MDD, we investigated the association between immune response and depressive symptoms. We assessed the self-reported presence of allergies, one of the most common markers of immune deficiencies, in our MDD sample relative to the general population. We found a higher proportion of allergies in MDD (51.0% with allergies compared to CDC 2021 survey estimate of 31.8% in the general population). Interestingly, when stratified by depression severity, participants with mild to moderate depressive symptoms had a greater self-reported rate of allergies (55.1%) than participants with moderate to severe depressive symptoms (48.0%) (Cohen’s d = 0.14). Our findings suggest that immune deficiencies may be linked to the symptoms of MDD, even in cases of mild symptom expression. Our findings also indicate that a key subgroup of mildly depressed individuals may benefit from personalized treatments that target the interaction between immune response and MDD symptoms via mechanisms of action of the hypothalamus, supporting further development of treatments focused on improving motivation, reward processing, and goal-directed behaviors.

Topic Area: OTHER