Thermal Modulation of Affective Disorders

Affective disorders, including major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders, often involve dysregulation of mood, sleep and autonomic function. Recent research has begun to unpick how thermal interventions—from controlled whole-body hyperthermia to local skin warming—can influence neural and peripheral pathways that govern affective states. These interventions appear to engage thermosensory and interoceptive signalling, modulating cytokine release, serotonergic activity and autonomic outputs. By altering core and peripheral temperatures, thermal modulation can alleviate depressive symptoms, enhance sleep quality and attenuate physiological responses to stressors. Mechanistic studies have highlighted links between elevated body temperature and mood, while clinical trials have demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects of hyperthermic baths and infrared sauna treatments. Collectively, this body of work suggests that targeted temperature manipulations may offer safe and accessible adjunctive therapies for treatment-resistant affective disorders, with potential for integration into multidisciplinary care pathways worldwide.

Research from Nature Portfolio

A large-scale population study has confirmed that higher ambient and core body temperatures, captured via wearable sensors and self-reports, are correlated with increased severity of depressive symptoms in over 20 000 participants. Reduced diurnal temperature amplitude—reflecting blunted night-day temperature differences—also tended to accompany higher symptom scores, underscoring a possible role for circadian thermoregulation in mood disorders. These findings validate earlier smaller studies and point towards body temperature rhythms as biomarkers for depression risk and as targets for novel treatment development.

Thermal Modulation of Affective Disorders publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in thermal modulation of affective disorders across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Whole-body hyperthermia (WBH): A therapeutic procedure that raises core body temperature, typically using infrared or water-based heating, to elicit physiological responses such as cytokine release and serotonergic activation.

Diurnal body temperature amplitude: The variation in core or peripheral temperature between daytime peak and nighttime trough within a 24-hour cycle, often attenuated in mood disorders.

Thermosensory system: The network of peripheral receptors and central pathways responsible for detecting temperature changes and maintaining thermal homeostasis, which also interact with emotion-regulating circuits.

Interoceptive signalling: The process by which internal physiological states, such as warmth or heart rate, are communicated to the brain to influence perceptions and emotional responses.

Cytokines: Small signalling proteins, including interleukins, released by immune cells that modulate inflammation and can affect mood by acting on central nervous system targets.

References

1. Somatic influences on subjective well-being and affective disorders: the convergence of thermosensory and central serotonergic systems. Frontiers in Psychology (2015).
2. Effects of hyperthermic baths on depression, sleep and heart rate variability in patients with depressive disorder: a randomized clinical pilot trial. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (2017).
3. Elevated body temperature is associated with depressive symptoms: results from the TemPredict Study. Scientific Reports (2024).
4. Association of plasma cytokines and antidepressant response following mild-intensity whole-body hyperthermia in major depressive disorder. Translational Psychiatry (2023).
5. Severity of depressive symptoms moderates the sympathoinhibitory effect of local skin warming following exposure to a social stressor. Psychoneuroendocrinology (2023).