ReviewBMC medicine2013
So depression is an inflammatory disease, but where does the inflammation come from?
Review in BMC medicine, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 637 papers, 10 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
637 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 1,380 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis of 633,317 individuals shows associations between healthy diets and depression, anxiety and stress in 23 low- and middle-income countries.BMC global and public health · 2026Pooled it
- Anti-inflammatory diets and mental health: a scoping review of randomized controlled trials and systematic evidence syntheses.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- The multimodal neuroimaging signatures and gene expression profiles for adverse childhood experiences.BMC medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Burden of psychological symptoms and disorders among individuals with hepatitis B: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Nonlinear dose-response relationship between dietary inflammatory index and risk of depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Association of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio with depression risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Fiber intake and fiber intervention in depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and randomized controlled trials.Nutrition reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Epidemiological linkage between migraine and diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The journal of headache and pain · 2024Pooled it
- L-Carnitine in the Treatment of Psychiatric and Neurological Manifestations: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Evaluating context effects on PHQ-8 somatic item scores among people with a chronic medical condition: a scleroderma patient-centred intervention network randomised experiment.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2026Trial
- Adjuvant administration of probiotic effects on sexual function in depressant women undergoing SSRIs treatment: a double-blinded randomized controlled trial.BMC psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Association of the red blood cell distribution width-to-albumin ratio with incident depression and depressive symptom trajectories in older adults.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Peripheral blood DNA methylation partially reports on immune cell type composition in the frontal brain.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Article
- Life's essential 8 health profiles and risk of incident neuropsychiatric diseases: a nationwide prospective cohort study.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Causal Association Between Antidepressant Use and Thyroid Disease Risk: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.Actas espanolas de psiquiatria · 2026Article
- Carboxypeptidase E Alleviates Depressive-Like Behaviors in Mice by Regulating BDNF/Nrf2 Axis-Mediated Ferroptosis.Neurochemical research · 2026Article
- Alterations in Gut Microbiota and Serum Metabolome Are Associated with Postpartum Depression.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Associations between inflammation markers (CRP and IL-6) and depression among adolescents and young adults in Soweto and Durban, South Africa.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
577 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
11 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWe now know that depression is associated with a chronic, low-grade inflammatory response and activation of cell-mediated immunity, as well as activation of the compensatory anti-inflammatory reflex system. It is similarly accompanied by increased oxidative and nitrosative stress (O&NS), which contribute to neuroprogression in the disorder. The obvious question this poses is 'what is the source of this chronic low-grade inflammation?' DISCUSSION: This review explores the role of inflammation and oxidative and nitrosative stress as possible mediators of known environmental risk factors in depression, and discusses potential implications of these findings. A range of factors appear to increase the risk for the development of depression, and seem to be associated with systemic inflammation; these include psychosocial stressors, poor diet, physical inactivity, obesity, smoking, altered gut permeability, atopy, dental cares, sleep and vitamin D deficiency. SUMMARY: The identification of known sources of inflammation provides support for inflammation as a mediating pathway to both risk and neuroprogression in depression. Critically, most of these factors are plastic, and potentially amenable to therapeutic and preventative interventions. Most, but not all, of the above mentioned sources of inflammation may play a role in other psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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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.