SynthesisBrain, behavior, and immunity2017
The effects of acute psychological stress on circulating and stimulated inflammatory markers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06263452 (Beta-Blocker Influences on Inflammatory and Neural Responses to Stress), which is not on this map. Cited by 375 papers, 5 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.
Beta-Blocker Influences on Inflammatory and Neural Responses to Stress
Who cites it
375 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 642 citations in OpenAlex.
- Biological Markers of Burnout Severity: A Systematic Review.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress · 2026Pooled it
- Dynamic Cytokine Relationships Across the Blood-Brain Barrier in Humans and Nonhuman Primates-Implications for Psychiatric Illness: A Systematic Review.Biological psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Bibliometric and visualization analyses of cancer-related fatigue research published worldwide from 2001 to 2023.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Pooled it
- Parental Preconception Adversity and Offspring Health in African Americans: A Systematic Review of Intergenerational Studies.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the stability of peripheral immune markers in healthy adults.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2023Pooled it
- The Effects of a Single Vagus Nerve's Neurodynamics on Heart Rate Variability in Chronic Stress: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Trial
- Inflamed but not impulsive: Acute inflammatory cytokine response does not impact prepotent response inhibition.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Trial
- 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
- Autonomic function and inflammation in pregnant women participating in a randomized controlled study of Mindfulness Based Childbirth and Parenting.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Trial
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction increases stimulated IL-6 production among lonely older adults: A randomized controlled trial.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Prenatal inflammation and postpartum anxiety: Findings from a prospective pregnancy cohort in New York City.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Transdiagnostic determinants of Growth Differentiation Factor-15 (GDF-15) in psychiatric in-patients: age, renal indices, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR).Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Interleukin-6 responses to acute stress are not altered in alcohol use disorder despite elevated baseline inflammation.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Technostress and Insulin Resistance Risk: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of 104,175 Spanish Workers Using TyG, TyG-BMI, METS-IR, and SPISE Indices.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Best practices for using biological data in psychological research.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026Review
- Divergent recovery trajectories after mild traumatic brain injury are characterized by distinct acute profiles of neurofilament light, 4R-tau, and white matter diffusivity.Journal of neurology · 2026Article
- Stress-induced IL-6 response patterns amplify the link between daily negative affect and later depressive symptoms during bereavement.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Psychological stress during medical internship is associated with inflammatory signatures linked to mental health.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Childhood socioeconomic status and changes in biological aging across mid-to-later life.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2026Article
315 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
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Inflammatory reactivity to acute laboratory stress is thought to reflect individual differences in responsivity to environmental stressors and may confer future health risk. To characterize this response, we conducted a meta-analysis of 34 studies that measured circulating inflammatory markers and 15 studies that measured stimulated production of inflammatory markers before and after exposure to laboratory challenge. Results showed significant stress-related increases in circulating interleukin (IL)-1β (d=0.66, p<0.001), IL-6 (d=0.35, p<0.001), IL-10 (d=0.69, p<0.001), and tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α (d=0.28, p<0.001), but not IL-1ra, IL-2, interferon-γ, or C-reactive protein. There were sufficient data to assess the time course of IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α reactivity. IL-6 increased from baseline to measures taken 40-50, 60-75, 90, and 120min following stress, with the largest effect at 90min post-stress (d=0.70, p<0.001). IL-1β increased from baseline to 20-30, 40-50, and 60-70min following stress, with the largest effect between 40 and 50min post-stress (d=0.73, p=0.02). For TNF-α, there was a significant increase from baseline to 31-50min post stress (d=0.44, p=0.01), but not at later times. There was no difference in magnitude of IL-6 reactivity as a function of type of stress (social-evaluative versus other). For stimulated inflammatory markers, results showed stress-related increases in IL-1β when measured 20-120min post-stress (d=1.09, p<0.001), and in IL-4 and interferon-γ when measured 0-10min post stressor (d=-0.42, p<0.001 and d=0.47, p<0.001). These results extend findings from a prior meta-analysis (Steptoe et al., 2007) to show reliable increases in circulating IL-6, IL-1β, IL-10 and TNF-α and stimulated IL-1β, IL-4 and interferon-γ in response to acute stress. It is possible that these responses contribute to associations between exposure to life challenges and vulnerability to inflammatory disease.
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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.