Autoimmune Diseases Almost Double Mental Health Disorder Risk

Twenty-nine percent of autoimmune disease patients also report a mental health condition, compared to 18% of the general population who do not have an autoimmune disorder, according to the results of a recent study published in BMJ Mental Health.

Specifically, lifetime prevalence rates of autoimmune patients with mental health disorders compared to the general population were 26% vs. 15% for depression, 21% vs. 13% for anxiety and 1% vs. 0.5% for bipolar disorder. These findings are consistent with a previous separate study that found a prevalence of depression (22%), anxiety (13%) and bipolar disorder (7%) in lupus patients, the current study shows.

A team of researchers, including corresponding author Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots, Ph.D., from the Center for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh in the UK, studied the data of more than 1.5 million UK residents who participated in Our Future Health survey, a British health research project that collects social, demographic, health and lifestyle information. Results were collected from October 2022 to September 2024, and the study was published June 9, 2025. Approximately 37,808 participants reported autoimmune conditions and 1,525,347 did not. Women were more likely to report an autoimmune condition than men (74.5% vs. 56.5%). Additionally, the average age of participants was 53, 90% identified as white and 57% were women. When the researchers adjusted for sociodemographic factors, the risk of depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder was identical in people with autoimmune conditions.

Survey participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the seven-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) to measure their depression and anxiety symptoms.

Autoimmune diseases are characterized by the body’s immune system mistakenly attacking healthy cells, causing inflammation and damage that may be life-threatening. Symptoms can include fatigue, muscle aches and digestion problems, ranging from mild to severe, and can come and go. Although there are more than 80 autoimmune diseases recognized by scientists, the researchers in this study focused on six: rheumatoid arthritis, Graves’ syndrome (thyroid hormone disorder), inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis.

The study’s findings also support previous knowledge that autoimmune disorders are more common in women than in men—32% vs. 21%, leading researchers to theorize there is a link between sex hormones and antibodies. In the United States, approximately 50 million people have an autoimmune disease, with women accounting for 80% of diagnoses, according to the National Institutes of Health.

“Women (but not men) with depression exhibit increased concentrations of circulating cytokines and acute phase reactants compared with non-depressed counterparts,” Rakshasa-Loots and his team write. “It is therefore possible that women may experience the compounding challenges of increased occurrence of autoimmunity and stronger effects of immune responses on mental health, resulting in the substantially higher prevalence of affective disorders observed in this study.”

Researchers suggest individuals diagnosed with autoimmune disorders should be regularly screened for mental health conditions to establish early detection practices and treatment, especially women.

“Future studies should seek to determine whether putative biological, psychological, and social factors—for example, chronic pain, fatigue, sleep or circadian disruptions and social isolation—may represent potentially modifiable mechanisms linking autoimmune conditions and affective disorders.”