ReviewPsychopharmacology2019
Stress, sex hormones, inflammation, and major depressive disorder: Extending Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression to account for sex differences in mood disorders.
Review in Psychopharmacology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 207 papers, 4 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
207 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 365 citations in OpenAlex.
- Grief-Related Chest Pain: A Review, Conceptual Analysis, and Integrative Model.Psychophysiology · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of different physical activity interventions on depressive symptoms in menopausal women: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Depression and obesity among females, are sex specificities considered?Archives of women's mental health · 2021Pooled it
- Psychosocial Interventions and Immune System Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.JAMA psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Inflammation-induced depressed mood and reward responsivity as a function of age in female adults: a randomized controlled trial of endotoxin.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Can promoting compassion and gratitude through a four-week online training program improve women's mental health? A randomized controlled trial.BMC women's health · 2025Trial
- Interleukin-8 and depressive responses to an inflammatory challenge: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2022Trial
- Oxytocin, cortisol, and cognitive control during acute and naturalistic stress.Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2021Trial
- Stress and cardiovascular disease: Testing a vigilance pathway in two contemporary theories.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Article
- Temporal coupling of cortisol and immune cell responses in acute psychosocial stress.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 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
- Treatment effects on sphingosine-1-phosphate and its receptors in major depressive disorder: implications for biomarkers.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Gender Differences in the Protective Effects of Social Participation on Depressive Symptom Trajectories Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: A Nationwide Longitudinal Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Peripheral biochemical parameters for discrimination between bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder in female patients of reproductive age: a CRP-stratified exploratory study.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Targeting dopamine transporter for treating social transmission of depression-like behaviors in male mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Burden of mental disorders in working-age populations (15-64 years) from 1990 to 2021 with projections to 2045: a global analysis of India, China and the United States.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
- Advancing women's mental health: Recommendations from a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- EEG Neurofeedback for Major Depressive Disorder: A Scoping Review.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Review
- Prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms among patients consulting a rare disease outpatient clinic for rare and undiagnosed diseases in China.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2026Article
- Brain anatomy in major hormonal transition phases: Longitudinal and cross-sectional volume associations with menarche and menopause.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
147 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 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Social Signal Transduction Theory of Depression is a biologically plausible, multi-level theory that describes neural, physiologic, molecular, and genomic mechanisms that link experiences of social-environmental adversity with internal biological processes that drive depression pathogenesis, maintenance, and recurrence. Central to this theory is the hypothesis that interpersonal stressors involving social threat (e.g., social conflict, evaluation, rejection, isolation, and exclusion) upregulate inflammatory processes that can induce several depressive symptoms, including sad mood, anhedonia, fatigue, psychomotor retardation, and social-behavioral withdrawal. The original article describing this formulation (Psychol Bull 140:774-815, 2014) addressed critical questions involving depression onset and recurrence, as well as why depression is strongly predicted by early life stress and comorbid with anxiety disorders and certain physical disease conditions, such as asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pain, and cardiovascular disease. Here, we extend the theory to help explain sex differences in depression prevalence, which is a defining feature of this disorder. Central to this extension is research demonstrating that ovarian hormone fluctuations modulate women's susceptibility to stress, brain structure and function, and inflammatory activity and reactivity. These effects are evident at multiple levels and are highly context-dependent, varying as a function of several factors including sex, age, reproductive state, endogenous versus exogenous hormones, and hormone administration mode and dose. Together, these effects help explain why women are at greater risk for developing inflammation-related depressed mood and other neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders during the reproductive years, especially for those already at heightened risk for depression or in the midst of a hormonal transition period.
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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.