According to new research from scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, United States, the drugs improve the potency of white blood cells that attack infected or cancerous cells in the body.
The team, led by Dr Dwight Evans, learned that the antidepressants, specifically, made these so-called natural killer (NK) cells more able to induce apoptosis, or "cell suicide" in damaged cells.
Treating depressed and non-depressed HIV-positive women with a range of antidepressants, they found that stress and depression can impair the function of NK cells subsequently accelerating the progress of infections.
Dr John Krystal, editor of the journal Biological Psychiatry, said that there is growing evidence that depression influences the outcomes infections and cancers in the body.
"Antidepressant treatments are beginning to be studied for their potential positive effects on immune function," he added.
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