Understanding immune system dysfunction and its context in mood disorders: psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology and clinical interventions

Mood disorders include a set of psychiatric manifestations of increasing prevalence in our society, being mainly represented by major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD). The etiopathogenesis of mood disorders is extremely complex, with a wide spectrum of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors being responsible for their appearance and development. In this sense, immune system dysfunction represents a key mechanism in the onset and pathophysiology of mood disorders, worsening mainly the central nervous system (neuroinflammation) and the periphery of the body (systemic inflammation). However, these alterations cannot be understood separately, but as part of a complex picture in which different factors and systems interact with each other. Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology (PNIE) is the area responsible for studying the relationship between these elements and the impact of mind-body integration, placing the immune system as part of a whole. Thus, the dysfunction of the immune system is capable of influencing and activating different mechanisms that promote disruption of the psyche, damage to the nervous system, alterations to the endocrine and metabolic systems, and disruption of the microbiota and intestinal ecosystem, as well as of other organs and, in turn, all these mechanisms are responsible for inducing and enhancing the immune dysfunction. Similarly, the clinical approach to these patients is usually multidisciplinary, and the therapeutic arsenal includes different pharmacological (for example, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and lithium) and non-pharmacological (i.e., psychotherapy, lifestyle, and electroconvulsive therapy) treatments. These interventions also modulate the immune system and other elements of the PNIE in these patients, which may be interesting to understand the therapeutic success or failure of these approaches. In this sense, this review aims to delve into the relationship between immune dysfunction and mood disorders and their integration in the complex context of PNIE. Likewise, an attempt will be made to explore the effects on the immune system of different strategies available in the clinical approach to these patients, in order to identify the mechanisms described and their possible uses as biomarkers.