Antidepressants to Beat the Flu: the Immune-Stimulating Properties of Mood-Elevating Medications
By Julian Lieb, MDNovember 09, 2009
Stimulating immune function to perform efficiently is the logical approach to defeating pathogens. Such stimulation is propagandized as unavailable, while in truth the remarkable immunostimulating properties of lithium and antidepressants were documented in 1981, when I published the first of nine reviews on the topic. A therapeutic claim is reinforced when the mechanism is known. Prostaglandins, when produced excessively, depress every component of immune function, and induce microbial replication. In the early nineteen-seventies, a colleague showed that antidepressants and lithium inhibit prostaglandins.
Lithium has immunostimulating, antiviral and antibacterial properties, antidepressants immunostimulating, antiviral, antibacterial, antiparasite, and fungicidal properties. Lithium is potentially effective for paronychia, chalazions, bacterial skin infections, urinary tract infections, canker sores, cold sores and genital herpes, antidepressants for canker sores, cold sores, and genital herpes. Evidence from various sources supports the use of antidepressants in T.B, malaria, and HIV; when antidepressants are added to antiretrovirals, they reduce HIV viral load to undetectable. Lithium has untapped potential in methicillin-resistant staphylococcal infections, (MRSA) hospital acquired infections (HAIs) sepsis, and pressure ulcers (bed sores). Once stimulated, a previously defective immune system should be able to eradicate or inactivate all pathogens.
There is great concern at France's Merieux Foundation that global warming will induce an upsurge in viral and other infections. Tuberculosis, now the #1 killer of the HIV infected, is developing resistance to standard treatment. With the threats posed by resistant T.B, migration to our shores of parasites never seen here before, and the emerging resistance of the malaria parasite to antimalarials, the availability of immunostimulation will be of evermore importance. In a 1983 review, I proposed that to stimulate immune function, an agent must have mood elevating properties. Over the past quarter of a century, I appealed to countless individuals and institutions to support the advance, none of which responded.
As lithium and antidepressants both prevent recurrences of flu-like colds, one cannot be sure which to favor for HINI, lithium for some, antidepressants for others a possibility. A few doses of lithium, or an antidepressant, could sufficiently stimulate immune function, and reduce viral replication, as to return some of the stricken from the brink. Astimulated immune system would also be able to destroy super infection with bacteria or other viruses. People with well functioning immune systems are relatively invulnerable to pathogens, compared to people with defective immune function. Of the causes of defective immunity, the one never mentioned is depression, although indices of immune function indicate that depression does so.
Editor's Note:
First, let's get the disclaimer out of the way: no one should ever take lithium or antidepressant medication, or any other prescription medication without a doctor's prescription, and unless they are under a doctor's care. Misuse of these medications can be life-threatening. Don't start gulping someone's leftover Lithium because you think it might prevent the flu.
The knowledge that antidepressants and lithium have immune-stimulating properties is becoming more widely known to the medical community. Two quick finds on PubMed: Amsterdam et al reported that significantly fewer people came down with flu-like illness after being started on lithium for a mood disorder than before starting the medication. Lithium, when given to patients with low white blood cell count (low defense against infection), increased the production of white blood cells, and the number of white blood cells destroying the bacteria Staphylococcus Aureus in vitro, according to Blicharski et al.
Dr. Lieb reviewed the immunostimulating and antimicrobial properties of lithium and antidepressants in an article of the same name in the Journal of Infection.
What do you think? Does this knowledge fit with your experience?
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