Allegation of Faking Depression in Litigation can be Disproven

Research published in October 2012 by a team at Mt. Sinai Medical Center led by Georgia Hodes Phd shows that real depression is related to and co-occurs with a measurable spike in the protein IL-6 produced by the immune system. In litigation over TBI claims the plaintiff is frequently depressed and the defense is either that the depression pre-existed the TBI (but was never diagnosed) or that the plaintiff is faking bad (i.e. pretending to be depressed to collect money he doesn’t deserve). Based on this published research if a plaintiff developed severe depression consequent to a TBI and his blood shows elevated IL-6 it will be easier to show that his depression is organic. In the rare case where the plaintiff had his blood tested shortly prior to the TBI and his IL-6 was measured as normal, you would have a strong pre vs. post incident contrast.