Trial reportBrain, behavior, and immunity2011
Major depressive disorder and immunity to varicella-zoster virus in the elderly.
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 46 papers, 2 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
46 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 88 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bidirectional relationship between human herpes virus reactivation and depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of neurovirology · 2025Pooled it
- Risk factors for herpes zoster infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis unveiling common trends and heterogeneity patterns.Infection · 2024Pooled it
- Breast cancer survivors' typhoid vaccine responses: Chemotherapy, obesity, and fitness make a difference.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Trial
- Infections during peginterferon/ribavirin therapy are associated with the magnitude of decline in absolute lymphocyte count: results of the IDEAL study.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2014Trial
- Association of Chronic Diseases With Herpes Zoster in China: A Nationwide Population-Based Survey.Health care science · 2026Article
- A Response to: Letter to the Editor Regarding "The Risk of Herpes Zoster in Patients with Depressive Disorders: A German Claims Database Analysis".Infectious diseases and therapy · 2026Article
- The Risk of Herpes Zoster in Patients with Depressive Disorders: A German Claims Database Analysis.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2025Article
- No Evidence for a Causal Association Between Depression and Herpes Zoster or Post-Herpetic Neuralgia: A Mendelian Randomization Study.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- Is There such a Thing as Post-Viral Depression?: Implications for Precision Medicine.Biomolecules & therapeutics · 2024Review
- The synergistic effect of insomnia and depression on risk of herpes zoster.Journal of neurovirology · 2024Article
- Multidermatomal herpes zoster triggered by psychological stress in an immunocompetent young adult: a rare case report and clinical insights.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2023Article
- Review
- Exploring the causal role of the immune response to varicella-zoster virus on multiple traits: a phenome-wide Mendelian randomization study.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Global occurrence of depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of psychosomatic research · 2023Article
- Effect of Cytomegalovirus Infection on the Central Nervous System: Implications for Psychiatric Disorders.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
- AHI1: linking depression and impaired antiviral immune response.Cell research · 2022Article
- Depression compromises antiviral innate immunity via the AVP-AHI1-Tyk2 axis.Cell research · 2022Article
- Depression, aging, and immunity: implications for COVID-19 vaccine immunogenicity.Immunity & ageing : I & A · 2022Review
- Prospective associations between depression and risk of hospitalisation for infection: Findings from the UK Biobank.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
- Targeting the Adaptive Immune System in Depression: Focus on T Helper 17 Cells.Pharmacological reviews · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Major depressive disorder has been associated with activation of inflammatory processes as well as with reductions in innate, adaptive and non-specific immune responses. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between major depression and a disease-relevant immunologic response, namely varicella-zoster virus (VZV)-specific immunity, in elderly adults. A cross-sectional cohort study was conducted in 104 elderly community dwelling adults ≥ 60years of age who were enrolled in the depression substudy of the shingles prevention study, a double blind, placebo-controlled vaccine efficacy trial. Fifty-two subjects had a current major depressive disorder, and 52 age- and sex-matched controls had no history of depression or any mental illness. VZV-specific cell-mediated immunity (VZV-CMI) was measured by VZV responder cell frequency (VZV-RCF) and interferon-γ enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assays, and antibody to VZV was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay against affinity-purified VZV glycoproteins (gpELISA). VZV-CMI, measured by VZV-RCF, was significantly lower in the depressed group than in the controls (p<0.001), and VZV-RCF was inversely correlated with the severity of depressive symptoms in the depressed patients. In addition, an age-related reduction in VZV-RCF was observed in the depressed patients, but not in the controls. Furthermore, there was a trend for depressive symptom severity to be associated with lower ELISPOT counts. Finally, VZV-RCF was higher in depressed patients treated with antidepressant medications as compared to untreated depressed patients. Since lower levels of VZV-RCF appear to explain the increased risk and severity of herpes zoster observed in older adults, these findings suggest that, in addition to increasing age, depression may increase the risk and severity of herpes zoster.
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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.