Trial reportPsychopharmacology2014
Cytokines plasma levels during antidepressant treatment with sertraline and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): results from a factorial, randomized, controlled trial.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 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
35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sertraline as an Antidepressant and Inflammatory Cytokines in Depressive Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trials.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Pooled it
- Peripheral cytokine levels and response to antidepressant treatment in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Proteomics profiling reveals inflammatory biomarkers of antidepressant treatment response: Findings from the CO-MED trial.Journal of psychiatric research · 2017Trial
- Assessment of non-BDNF neurotrophins and GDNF levels after depression treatment with sertraline and transcranial direct current stimulation in a factorial, randomized, sham-controlled trial (SELECT-TDCS): an exploratory analysis.Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry · 2015Trial
- Sertraline and inflammatory markers in major depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of general psychiatry · 2025Review
- Unveiling the Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Antidepressants: A Systematic Review of Human Studies over the Last Decade.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Immunity in neuromodulation: probing neural and immune pathways in brain disorders.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2025Review
- Neuroinflammation-A Crucial Factor in the Pathophysiology of Depression-A Comprehensive Review.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Efficacy of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Substance Use Disorder (SUD)-A Review and Insights into Possible Mechanisms of Action.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Efficacy of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Multiple Sclerosis (MS)-A Review and Insight into Possible Mechanisms of Action.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Assessing the effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the prevention of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- Review
- Effect of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) on Depression in Parkinson's Disease-A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Mechanisms of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for pain in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2024Review
- Assessing the Effect of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in the Prevention of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2023Article
- How does IL-6 change after combined treatment in MDD patients? A systematic review.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Review
- Neuroinflammation mechanisms of neuromodulation therapies for anxiety and depression.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
- The Relationship between Stress, Inflammation, and Depression.Biomedicines · 2022Review
- Effects of Antidepressant Treatment on Peripheral Biomarkers in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Review
- Neuroimmunology of depression.Advances in pharmacology (San Diego, Calif.) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleThe inflammatory hypothesis of depression states that increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines triggered by external and internal stressors are correlated to the acute depressive state. This hypothesis also suggests that pharmacotherapy partly acts in depression through anti-inflammatory effects. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a novel, promising, non-invasive somatic treatment for depression, although its antidepressant mechanisms are only partly understood.
objectivesWe explored the effects of tDCS and sertraline over the immune system during an antidepressant treatment trial.
methodsIn a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 73 antidepressant-free patients with unipolar depression were randomized to active/sham tDCS and sertraline/placebo (2 × 2 design). Plasma levels of several cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-17a, IFN-γ, and TNF-α) were determined to investigate the effects of the interventions and of clinical response on them.
resultsAll cytokines, except TNF-α, decreased over time, these effects being similar across the different intervention-groups and in responders vs. non-responders.
conclusionstDCS and sertraline (separately and combined) acute antidepressant effects might not specifically involve normalization of the immune system. In addition, being one of the first placebo-controlled trials measuring cytokines over an antidepressant treatment course, our study showed that the decrease in cytokine levels during the acute depressive episode could involve a placebo effect, highlighting the need of further placebo-controlled trials and observational studies examining cytokine changes during depression treatment and also after remission of the acute depressive episode.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.