Prof  Feyza Aricioglu, Professor of Pharmacology, Marmara University, Turkey, spoke to our correspondent at EPA 2017 about new areas of research and challenges in the field of psychiatry. She emphasized that the whole field of psychiatry is a dynamic area in terms of pharmacology and new treatment strategies. The more we learn about neurobiology, the more we can come up with better treatment strategies. One of the hot topics at the moment is inflammation. An increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines seems to be an overlapping area for schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. Inhibitors of pro-inflammatory cytokines may represent a new way to approach these diseases.

The whole field of psychiatry is a dynamic area in terms of pharmacology and new treatment strategies

She referred to a review article from 2013, which concluded that many diseases have an inflammatory basis, such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and others. Many of those patients - up to 40% - also suffer from depression. So there may be close relationship between inflammation and depression.