ArticleMolecular psychiatry2017
HPA axis in major depression: cortisol, clinical symptomatology and genetic variation predict cognition.
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 433 papers, 9 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
433 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 870 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of Citicoline/Phosphatidylserine Supplementation on Cognitive Performance and Executive Functions in Mental Disorders: A Systematic Review of Controlled Trials.Human psychopharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- Associations Between Depressive Symptoms and Memory Functions in Persons with HIV: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2026Pooled it
- Ultrasound Applications in the Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review of Techniques and Therapeutic Potentials in Clinical Trials and Animal Model Studies.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2026Pooled it
- Global trends and neurobiological frontiers of manual therapy in sleep disorders: integrating bibliometrics with clinical evidence.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Neurobiological effects of microbial treatments within psychiatry: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Unveiling the relationship of the comorbidity between depression and type 2 diabetes mellitus: a macro analysis and micro interpretation.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Gut microbiota-dependent mechanisms and efficacy of natural polysaccharides in multitarget antidepressant therapy: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Is cardiac autonomic control affected in major depressive disorder? A systematic review of heart rate variability studies.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The association between metabolically healthy obesity and risk of depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Pooled it
- Identifying treatment response classes to transcranial direct current stimulation from daily ecological momentary assessment patterns in patients with depression.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- Acupuncture plus wet cupping therapy for post stroke depression: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Advances in calcium signalling research for the diagnosis and treatment of depression.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- The role of zinc homeostasis in major depressive disorder: heterogeneous pathological mechanisms and therapeutic implications.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- The Sentinel Sleep Theory: Unweaving the biological function of REM sleep.Sleep medicine: X · 2026Article
- mTORC1 Activation Links Chronic Stress to Meso-Circuit Desynchronization and Accelerated Amyloid Pathology via Autophagic Dysfunction.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Article
- NTPDase2 suppresses hippocampal astrocyte-supplied cholesterol through hydrolyzing eATP in depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Association of baseline hormone levels with outcomes of first-line immunotherapy in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.Translational lung cancer research · 2026Article
- Stress and Parkinson's disease: from dysfunctional detection to impaired handling: a narrative review.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Molecular Signaling Pathways in Depression and Neuroinflammation: Focus on New Pathophysiological Proteins and Therapeutic Compounds.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Reconciling the neurogenic hypothesis of depression with recent advances in adult hippocampal neurogenesis research in humans.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
373 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
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been implicated in the pathophysiology of a variety of mood and cognitive disorders. Neuroendocrine studies have demonstrated HPA axis overactivity in major depression, a relationship of HPA axis activity to cognitive performance and a potential role of HPA axis genetic variation in cognition. The present study investigated the simultaneous roles HPA axis activity, clinical symptomatology and HPA genetic variation play in cognitive performance. Patients with major depression with psychotic major depression (PMD) and with nonpsychotic major depression (NPMD) and healthy controls (HC) were studied. All participants underwent a diagnostic interview and psychiatric ratings, a comprehensive neuropsychological battery, overnight hourly blood sampling for cortisol and genetic assessment. Cognitive performance differed as a function of depression subtype. Across all subjects, cognitive performance was negatively correlated with higher cortisol, and PMD patients had higher cortisol than did NPMDs and HCs. Cortisol, clinical symptoms and variation in genes, NR3C1 (glucocorticoid receptor; GR) and NR3C2 (mineralocorticoid receptor; MR) that encode for GRs and MRs, predicted cognitive performance. Beyond the effects of cortisol, demographics and clinical symptoms, NR3C1 variation predicted attention and working memory, whereas NR3C2 polymorphisms predicted memory performance. These findings parallel the distribution of GR and MR in primate brain and their putative roles in specific cognitive tasks. HPA axis genetic variation and activity were important predictors of cognition across the entire sample of depressed subjects and HR. GR and MR genetic variation predicted unique cognitive functions, beyond the influence of cortisol and clinical symptoms. GR genetic variation was implicated in attention and working memory, whereas MR was implicated in verbal memory.
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.