ReviewCurrent psychiatry reports2011
Is depression an inflammatory disorder?
Review in Current psychiatry reports, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03143075 (Do Omega-3 Fatty Acids Have an Antidepressant Effect in Patients With Signs of Peripheral Inflammation?), which is not on this map. Cited by 237 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.
Do Omega-3 Fatty Acids Have an Antidepressant Effect in Patients With Signs of Peripheral Inflammation?
Who cites it
237 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The longitudinal associations of inflammatory biomarkers and depression revisited: systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- 5-HTCurrent neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Functional neuroanatomy of peripheral inflammatory physiology: A meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Protocol of the randomized double blind sham controlled AddVNS study of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation mechanisms in depression.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Examining immune-inflammatory mechanisms of probiotic supplementation in depression: secondary findings from a randomized clinical trial.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Omega-3 fatty acids reduce depressive symptoms only among the socially stressed: A corollary of the social signal transduction theory of depression.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2023Trial
- Circulating versus lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory markers as correlates of subthreshold depressive symptoms in older adults.The world journal of biological psychiatry : the official journal of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry · 2020Trial
- Sex Differences in the Relationship Between Inflammation and Reward Sensitivity: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Endotoxin.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2019Trial
- Disentangling the association of depression on the anti-fatigue effects of ketamine.Journal of affective disorders · 2019Trial
- Acetyl-l-carnitine deficiency in patients with major depressive disorder.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Trial
- Changes in the serum levels of inflammatory cytokines in antidepressant drug-naïve patients with major depression.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Development of the Neuroimmune Modulator Ibudilast for the Treatment of Alcoholism: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Human Laboratory Trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2017Trial
- Sleep fragmentation and heightened inflammation: A latent profile subtype predicting nine-year major depressive disorder severity in the MIDUS study.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- The association between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and depression symptom severity among U.S. adults: A multivariable analysis of NHANES data.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Neuroinflammation and depression: immune-brain interface mechanisms, biomarker stratification, and therapeutic strategies.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Integrated Inflammatory and Gut Microbial Signatures in Major Depressive Disorder: A Case-Control Study.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Independent and joint associations of social participation and depressive symptoms with incident stroke risk in older adults: a prospective cohort study based on CHARLS and ELSA.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Article
- The Plasminogen Activation System in the Central Nervous System: Implications for Epilepsy and Neuropsychiatric Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Re-Examination of Inflammation in Major Depressive Disorder: Bridging Systemic and Neuroinflammatory Insights.Biomolecules · 2025Review
177 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Studies consistently report that groups of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) demonstrate increased levels of a variety of peripheral inflammatory biomarkers when compared with groups of nondepressed individuals. These findings are often interpreted as meaning that MDD, even in medically healthy individuals, may be an inflammatory condition. In this article, we examine evidence for and against this idea by looking more closely into what the actual patterns of inflammatory findings indicate in terms of the relationship between MDD and the immune system. Data are presented in support of the idea that inflammation only contributes to depression in a subset of patients versus the possibility that the depressogenic effect of inflammatory activation is more widespread and varies depending on the degree of vulnerability any given individual evinces in interconnected physiologic systems known to be implicated in the etiology of MDD. Finally, the treatment implications of these various possibilities are discussed.
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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.