ReviewBrain, behavior, and immunity2018
Sex differences in the neuro-immune consequences of stress: Focus on depression and anxiety.
Review in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 206 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
206 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 326 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sexually Dimorphic Neuroimmune Pathways in Chronic Pain: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms.Biomolecules · 2026Pooled it
- Minority stress in relation to biological outcomes among sexual and gender minority people: a systematic review and update.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Pooled it
- How Suppressed Anger Can Become an Illness: A Qualitative Systematic Review of the Experiences and Perspectives of Hwabyung Patients in Korea.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- Efficacy of probiotics on stress in healthy volunteers: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on randomized controlled trials.Brain and behavior · 2020Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Stress-Reducing Interventions on the Response to Challenges to the Immune System: A Meta-Analytic Review.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2019Pooled it
- Omega-3 supplementation and stress reactivity of cellular aging biomarkers: an ancillary substudy of a randomized, controlled trial in midlife adults.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Trial
- The effect of beta-adrenergic blockade on inflammatory and cardiovascular responses to acute mental stress.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2018Trial
- Sex and stress paradigm influence behavioural, neuroimmune, and microbiome responses in pubertal CD-1 mice.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Temporal coupling of cortisol and immune cell responses in acute psychosocial stress.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Bioactive dietary polyphenols modulate hippocampal inflammasome activation and sex-specific affective behavioral deficits following peripheral Foxp3Research square · 2026Article
- Unifying the hallmarks of major depression through neuroimmune-metabolic-oxidative (NIMETOX) dysregulation: a mechanistic systems framework.Cellular & molecular immunology · 2026Review
- The Effect of Pain on Intolerance of Uncertainty and Death Anxiety in Individuals Developing Vertebral Fractures After Liver Transplantation.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Partner separation and sex contribute to anxiety-like behavior, but partner separation alone amplifies hippocampal inflammation following immune challenge.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Psychological stress during medical internship is associated with inflammatory signatures linked to mental health.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Neuroinflammatory Mechanisms in Depression: From Biomarkers to Anti-Inflammatory Therapy.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Early life visceral stress induces auditory brainstem sensitization and cochlear proteomic alterations in a rat model of irritable bowel syndrome.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific Reversal of Stress-Induced Depressogenic Behaviors by Inhibition of HMGB1, TLR4, and NF-κB Signaling.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Sex-dependent modulation of social distance by lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in mice.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Lifestyle enrichment through social and cognitive engagement in later life: its associations with frailty trajectories and risk over 11 years.GeroScience · 2026Article
146 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 at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Women appear to be more vulnerable to the depressogenic effects of inflammation than men. Chronic stress, one of the most pertinent risk factors of depression and anxiety, is known to induce behavioral and affective-like deficits via neuroimmune alterations including activation of the brain's immune cells, pro-inflammatory cytokine expression, and subsequent changes in neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity within stress-related neural circuitry. Despite well-established sexual dimorphisms in the stress response, immunity, and prevalence of stress-linked psychiatric illnesses, much of current research investigating the neuroimmune impact of stress remains exclusively focused on male subjects. We summarize and evaluate here the available data regarding sex differences in the neuro-immune consequences of stress, and some of the physiological factors contributing to these differences. Furthermore, we discuss the extent to which sex differences in stress-related neuroinflammation can account for the overall female bias in stress-linked psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders. The currently available evidence from rodent studies does not unequivocally support the peripheral inflammatory changes seen in women following stress. Replication of many recent findings in stress-related neuroinflammation in female subjects is necessary in order to build a framework in which we can assess the extent to which sex differences in stress-related inflammation contribute to the overall female bias in stress-related affective disorders.
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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.