Having been hospitalized for an infection increased one’s risk of later developing a mood disorder by 62 percent. As patients acquired more infections, their odds of developing a mood disorder increased proportionally: five hospitalizations for infections increased their risk by almost five times. The association remained significant over 15 years after the infection was treated.
Having an autoimmune disease also raised one’s likelihood of developing a mood disorder, by 45 percent. The two diagnoses appeared to interact: the risk for people with autoimmune diseases who had an infection in the past year more than quadrupled.
via Study: Infections May Make Us More Vulnerable to Depression – Lindsay Abrams – The Atlantic.
I didn’t end up in hospital, but when looking back over the period before I was diagnosed with depression I had a very strong dose of flu which I now know affected my liver function, making my body more susceptible to depression.