The results of scientific work were shared by the edition of Psychoneuroendocrinology. As part of the study, specialists from Rice University studied the well-being of about 99 people who faced the death of their spouses two to three months before and after the start of scientific work. Not only psychological factors were taken into account, but also physiological ones.

The scientists wanted to record how systemic inflammation in the body affects the health of one of the spouses after the loss of the other. The task was to find out whether the level of inflammatory processes affects the degree of development of future depression in a person who is faced with the death of a loved one.

As a result, the researchers found that widowed people who had higher levels of inflammation in their bodies experienced more severe depression three months after the death of their partner than people with no or mild inflammation.