Got the Blues? Try a Cold Shower

Dec. 18, 2007 -- Treatments for depression range from medicines that can come with scary side effects to electric shock therapy, but a new paper suggests a simple cold shower might sometimes cure, and even prevent, the debilitating mood disorder.

Cleanliness may be a pleasant side effect, but the key lies in the water temperature.

The study's author, Nikolai Shevchuk, believes the biological explanation revolves around a part of the brainstem known, appropriately enough, as the locus ceruleus, or "blue spot."

Shevchuk, who formulated the theory while working in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, told Discovery News that short, cold showers may stimulate the blue spot, which is the brain's primary source of noradrenaline -- a chemical that could help mediate depression.

"The possible antidepressant effect may also have to do with the mild electroshock delivered to the brain by a cold shower, because of the unusually high density of cold receptors in the skin," he added, explaining that these nerve endings are 3-10 times higher in density than those registering warmth.

Shevchuk proposes that depression may be caused by two factors. The first is a genetic makeup that predisposes an individual to the disorder. Prior research has documented that depression can run in families, but since some sufferers report no prior family history and many people develop depression later in life, genes don't appear to explain all cases.

He suspects a lifestyle lacking sufficient physiological stress, such as brief changes in body temperature, may also be a contributing factor.

A paper on the theories has been accepted for publication in the journal Medical Hypotheses