Medicine

Mold causes depression?

By Chris Rangel MD ⋅ August 30, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Toxic Mold Makes People Depressed - An American Journal of Public Health study looked at World Health Organization data from almost 6,000 adults in Europe. The WHO data showed that those living in damp buildings with mold problems were more likely to report that they suffer from depressive symptoms such as decreased appetite low self-esteem and sleep disturbances. Lead study author Edmond Shenassa blames the toxin produced by the mold.

“Some molds are toxins, and exposure to these toxins may hypoactivate parts of the brain that deal with emotions.”

That’s not much of a theory. I have no doubt that people who live in damp, moldy houses tend to feel more depressed. What I can’t figure out is how these researchers came to the conclusion that an environmental toxin is the causal agent when the elephant in the room is the poor living conditions.

People who are aware that they have mold problems know this because they can see the mold stains and the chronically damp conditions. If they can see mold stains then likely they don’t have the financial means to remove the mold and repair the leaks causing the chronic dampness. So they are likely to be of lower socioeconomic status and there are plenty of studies linking lower socioeconomic status to greater rates of depression.

There is far less if any definitive data that links environmental toxins (from mold or otherwise) to higher rates of depression. There is not even a plausible neuro-chemical model on how environmental toxins could cause mood disorders.

The data used from the study came from a survey where the participants themselves rated how damp and moldy their living conditions were. A better controlled study would be something like this; house several volunteers in nearly identical conditions (apparently moldy and damp rooms) but in half the rooms the “mold” would either be nontoxic paint or a nontoxic mold species while the other half would have the usual “black mold” (asthmatics would be excluded). Then evaluate each group for depressive symptoms. If you want to evaluate a single variable as a cause of something then it’s important to eliminate as many other variables as possible.

I do believe in something called “black mold” hysteria in which people believe that these common household mold species are causing all kinds of somatic ailments (only links with asthma and certain other pulmonary allergic conditions have been proven). Now we can add depression to this growing list.