ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2018
Within-subject associations between inflammation and features of depression: Using the flu vaccine as a mild inflammatory stimulus.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05654441 (Low-grade Inflammatory Challenge and Social Behavior), which is not on this map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Low-grade Inflammatory Challenge and Social Behavior
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of associations between emotion regulation characteristics and inflammation.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Inflammation and depression in young people: a systematic review and proposed inflammatory pathways.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Early life adversity exposure and circulating markers of inflammation in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2020Pooled it
- Examining the impact of total sleep duration on daily affect among short-sleeping adolescents: an experimental study.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2026Trial
- Effects of a mild inflammatory challenge on cytokines and sickness behavior: A randomized controlled trial using the influenza vaccine.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Trial
- Effects of stress-induced inflammation on reward processing in healthy young women.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2020Trial
- Negative affect and peripheral inflammation: The role of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- From Better Sleep to Improved Mood: A Review of the Biopsychosocial Pathways for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia's Antidepressant Effects.Current sleep medicine reports · 2026Review
- Moderating effects of individual factors on the relationship between inflammation and psychophysiological states in healthy adults.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Impact of neuroinflammation on brain glutamate and dopamine signalling in schizophrenia: an update.Metabolic brain disease · 2025Review
- Acute inflammation elicits decreased blood pressure but similar arterial stiffness in young African American adults.Experimental physiology · 2024Article
- Pitfalls and potential: Translating the two-hit model of early life stress from pre-clinical non-human experiments to human samples.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Article
- Neuroinflammation in the Amygdala Is Associated With Recent Depressive Symptoms.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2023Article
- The roles of inflammation, affect, and interoception in predicting social perception.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2023Article
- Can inflammation predict social media use? Linking a biological marker of systemic inflammation with social media use among college students and middle-aged adults.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2023Article
- Article
- Psychoneuroimmunology in the time of COVID-19: Why neuro-immune interactions matter for mental and physical health.Behaviour research and therapy · 2022Review
- A primer on common analytic concerns in psychoneuroimmunology: Alternatives and paths forward.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Review
- Small "doses" of inflammation initiate social sickness behavior.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
- Inflammatory reactivity to the influenza vaccine is associated with changes in automatic social behavior.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundInflammation plays a role in mood and behavior that may be relevant to identifying risk factors and treatment for depression and other stress-related illnesses. The purpose of this study was to examine whether fluctuations in inflammation following a mild immune stimulus were associated with changes in daily reported features of depression for up to a week in a healthy sample of young adults.
methodsForty-one undergraduate students completed daily diaries of mood, feelings of social disconnection, sleep, and physical symptoms for one week before and after receiving the seasonal influenza vaccine. Circulating plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) was measured via blood samples taken immediately before and one day after vaccination.
resultsThere was a significant increase in circulating IL-6 from pre- to post-intervention (p = .008), and there was significant variability in the magnitude of IL-6 change. Greater increases in IL-6 were associated with greater mood disturbance on post-vaccine days, specifically depressed mood and cognitive symptoms.
conclusionsMinor increases in inflammation were associated with corresponding increases in features of depression, and these associations occurred in the absence of any physical symptoms. The influenza vaccine could be used to probe causal relationships with a high degree of ecological validity, even in high-risk and vulnerable populations, to better understand the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of depression.
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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.