Trial reportBrain, behavior, and immunity2011
Citalopram reduces endotoxin-induced fatigue.
Trial report in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pharmacological treatments for fatigue associated with palliative care.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Citalopram versus other anti-depressive agents for depression.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012Pooled it
- The effect of antidepressant medication treatment on serum levels of inflammatory cytokines: a meta-analysis.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2011Pooled it
- Systemic inflammation enhances stimulant-induced striatal dopamine elevation in tobacco smokers.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Trial
- Effects of acute systemic inflammation on the interplay between sad mood and affective cognition.Translational psychiatry · 2017Trial
- Systemic inflammation enhances stimulant-induced striatal dopamine elevation.Translational psychiatry · 2017Trial
- Glucose metabolism in the insula and cingulate is affected by systemic inflammation in humans.Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine · 2012Trial
- Higher Lipopolysaccharide Levels Are Linked to Less Anhedonia and Lower Severity of Major Depressive Disorder.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Inflammatory models of depression in rodents and humans.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Ketamine's mechanism of action with an emphasis on neuroimmune regulation: can the complement system complement ketamine's antidepressant effects?Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- Stress to inflammation and anhedonia: Mechanistic insights from preclinical and clinical models.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Article
- Can inflammation predict social media use? Linking a biological marker of systemic inflammation with social media use among college students and middle-aged adults.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2023Article
- Sleep and Healthy Aging Research on Depression (SHARE-D) randomized controlled trial: Protocol overview of an experimental model of depression with insomnia, inflammation, and affect mechanisms in older adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Liposaccharide-induced sustained mild inflammation fragments social behavior and alters basolateral amygdala activity.Psychopharmacology · 2023Article
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants reduce COVID-19 infection: prospects for use.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2022Review
- Antidepressants Usage and Risk of Pneumonia Among Elderly Patients With the Parkinson's Disease: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Back to the future of psychoneuroimmunology: Studying inflammation-induced sickness behavior.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Review
- Sick for science: experimental endotoxemia as a translational tool to develop and test new therapies for inflammation-associated depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Review
- The possible immunoregulatory and anti-inflammatory effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in coronavirus disease patients.Medical hypotheses · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Increased levels of inflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) may play a role in depression. Mild depressive-like symptoms can be induced in humans through activation of the innate immune system with endotoxin. Whether preventive treatment with antidepressants can reduce endotoxin-induced symptoms has never been tested. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over study, we administered intravenous low-dose endotoxin (0.8 ng/kg) or placebo to 11 healthy subjects who had received oral pre-treatment with citalopram (10 mg twice a day) or placebo for 5 days. The Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, the State and Trait Anxiety Inventory, and a visual analog scale were used to measure depressive and anxiety symptoms and social anhedonia. Serum levels of TNF and IL-6 were measured with immunoassays. Compared to placebo, endotoxin administration increased serum levels of TNF and IL-6, and caused mild depressive-like symptoms, in particular lassitude and social anhedonia. While citalopram pre-treatment had no effect on the innate immune response to endotoxin, it reduced the endotoxin-induced MADRS total score by 50%, with a moderate effect size (Cohen's d=0.5). Most of the MADRS total score was due to the lassitude item, and citalopram pre-treatment specifically reduced endotoxin-induced lassitude with a large effect size (Cohen's d=0.9). These results suggest that subchronic pre-treatment with the serotonin-reuptake inhibitor citalopram blunts mood symptoms induced by acute immune system activation with endotoxin without inhibiting the peripheral immune response.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.