ReviewFrontiers in psychiatry2019
Cortisol and Major Depressive Disorder-Translating Findings From Humans to Animal Models and Back.
Review in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 126 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
126 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 243 citations in OpenAlex.
- The influence of depression on clinical outcomes of total shoulder arthroplasty: a systematic Review.European journal of orthopaedic surgery & traumatology : orthopedie traumatologie · 2024Pooled it
- The association of FKBP5 gene polymorphism with genetic susceptibility to depression and response to antidepressant treatment- a systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Phytochemicals in the treatment of patients with depression: a systemic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Developing a translational research framework for MDD: combining biomolecular mechanisms with a spiraling risk factor model.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Prevalence of mental health problems among children with long COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Effects of 28-day simvastatin administration on emotional processing, reward learning, working memory, and salivary cortisol in healthy participants at-risk for depression: OxSTEP, an online experimental medicine trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Maternal anxiety or depression and cognitive ability in young male offspring: A population-based cohort study using cognitive test scores from the Danish Conscription Board Examination.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- The Dangerous Liaison Between Depression and Cardiovascular Disease: A Narrative Review of Epidemiology, Mechanisms, and Clinical Management.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- A Vortioxetine-Glycyrrhizic Acid Supramolecular Complex: Synthesis and Cellular Effects on Microglial and Blood Cells Under Inflammatory and Glucocorticoid Challenge.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Glucocorticoid Signaling in PSC-Derived Neural Systems to Elucidate Mechanisms of Stress-Induced Psychiatric Vulnerability.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Neuropsychological Disorders and Its Intergenerational Transmission Mechanisms.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Plasma neurofilament light chain: A novel biomarker of neuroaxonal injury associated with depressive symptoms in epilepsy.Epilepsia · 2026Article
- Revisiting 'environmental effects': Directions for multidisciplinary investigations of air quality and psychopathology.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2026Article
- Depression and aging: insights from brain age prediction models.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Impact of Chronic Mild Stress on Neurotrophic and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Factors in the Brain of Rats Submitted to Sepsis.Neurotoxicity research · 2026Article
- Investigating a biopsychosocial model of depression in autistic youth: The intersection of cortisol and depressive symptoms.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Hypoglossal Nerve Transection Induces Anxiety- and Depression-like Behaviors with HPA Axis Dysregulation in Rats.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Kynurenine pathway dysregulation in major depressive disorder: the convergence of excitotoxicity, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Review
- Gray and White matter microstructural alterations in major depressive disorder: a multi-center diffusion imaging study.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Associations between attentional disengagement from distressed infant faces and cortisol reactivity are moderated by depressive symptoms in pregnant women: an eye-tracking study.Archives of women's mental health · 2026Article
66 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 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a global problem for which current pharmacotherapies are not completely effective. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction has long been associated with MDD; however, the value of assessing cortisol as a biological benchmark of the pathophysiology or treatment of MDD is still debated. In this review, we critically evaluate the relationship between HPA axis dysfunction and cortisol level in relation to MDD subtype, stress, gender and treatment regime, as well as in rodent models. We find that an elevated cortisol response to stress is associated with acute and severe, but not mild or atypical, forms of MDD. Furthermore, the increased incidence of MDD in females is associated with greater cortisol response variability rather than higher baseline levels of cortisol. Despite almost all current MDD treatments influencing cortisol levels, we could find no convincing relationship between cortisol level and therapeutic response in either a clinical or preclinical setting. Thus, we argue that the absolute level of cortisol is unreliable for predicting the efficacy of antidepressant treatment. We propose that future preclinical models should reliably produce exaggerated HPA axis responses to acute or chronic stress
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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.