title: Psychological side effects of immune therapies: symptoms and pathomechanism.
abstract: Immunotherapies revolutionised the treatment of several disorders but show specific side-effect profiles which frequently involve psychological symptoms. Long term interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) therapy can cause wide-ranging psychiatric side-effects from fatigue, insomnia, anxiety to full-blown depression. This treatment-emergent depression shares several symptoms with major depressive disorder (MDD) with a predominance of somatic/neurovegetative symptoms, and can be treated with antidepressants. However, this experience directed research to inflammatory mechanisms in MDD. MDD has been confirmed as a heterogeneous disorder with a subgroup of patients suffering from low-grade chronic inflammation and frequently resistant to traditional antidepressant treatment. Thus future research should develop strategies to identify those MDD patients who could benefit from drugs acting through inflammatory pathways.
authors.affiliation: MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kovacs
authors.affiliation: MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; National Institute of Oncology, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kovacs
authors.affiliation: MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Pharmacodynamics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eszlari
authors.affiliation: MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Clinical and Theoretical Mental Health, Kútvölgyi Clinical Center, Semmelweis University, Kútvölgyi u.4, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Xenia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gonda
authors.affiliation: MTA-SE Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurochemistry Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Pharmacodynamics, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary; Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit, University Manchester, Manchester, UK; MTA-SE-NAP B Genetic Brain Imaging Migraine Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. Electronic address: Gabriella.Juhasz@manchester.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Juhasz
mesh_terms: D003863:Depression / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D007249:Inflammation / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D016898:Interferon-alpha