The seven-month study began in early 2020 and included data from 106 countries. The results showed that with each increasing level of severity of depression symptoms, participants had a higher body temperature.
Body temperature data also showed a trend towards higher depression scores in those who had less fluctuations in temperature during a 24-hour period, but this finding did not reach significance.
The findings shed light on how a novel depression treatment method might work, said Ashley Mason, PhD, lead author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.
A small group of existing, causal studies have found that hot tub or sauna use may reduce depression, possibly by causing the body to cool itself, for example, through sweating.