Scientists from the Canadian Center for Narcotics and Mental Health at the University of Toronto have found that prolonged depression can cause serious brain changes. The results of their research were published in the journal "The Lancet Psychiatry".

To reach these findings, scientists have been monitoring 25 patients between 18 and 75 years of age who have recurrent depressive disorder for more than 10 years; 25, diagnosed relatively recently with dysthymia (a chronic lighter depression), as well as 30 completely healthy people.

"We have analyzed the relationship between TSPO - a marker of microglial proliferation, the duration of untreated major depressive disorder and the overall duration of the disease after treatment with antidepressants," Canadian doctors said.

The final results indicate that patients who suffer from severe long-term depressive disorder have more than 30% higher translocation protein in their brain than others. This means that the brain of people with unipolar depression looks the same way as in patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease.