ArticleMolecular psychiatry2021
Association of inflammation with depression and anxiety: evidence for symptom-specificity and potential causality from UK Biobank and NESDA cohorts.
Article in Molecular psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. It is linked to trial NCT05415397 (Precision Psychiatry), which is not on this map. Cited by 189 papers, 4 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.
Precision Psychiatry: Anti-inflammatory Medication in Immuno-metabolic Depression
Who cites it
189 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 310 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sex-specific associations of depression with inflammatory markers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Translational psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of the prevalence of fatigue in common mental disorders (mood disorders, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and trauma and stressor related disorders).BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Contemporary in vivo rodent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) models in translational depression research: a systematic review.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of coenzyme Q10 supplementation on depressive symptoms and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Interleukin 6 as a Treatment Target for Depression: A Proof-of-Concept Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Inflammation-induced depressed mood and reward responsivity as a function of age in female adults: a randomized controlled trial of endotoxin.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Randomized Phase II Study of Nab-Paclitaxel and Gemcitabine With or Without Tocilizumab as First-Line Treatment in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: Survival and Cachexia.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2025Trial
- A randomized proof-of-mechanism trial of TNF antagonism for motivational deficits and related corticostriatal circuitry in depressed patients with high inflammation.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Functional connectivity in reward circuitry and symptoms of anhedonia as therapeutic targets in depression with high inflammation: evidence from a dopamine challenge study.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Trial
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stress and other psychological factors in pregnant women giving birth during the first wave of the pandemic.Reproductive health · 2022Trial
- Fast and slow gene expression changes in blood following acute social stress.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Immune-related gene expression links anxiety, depression, and pain outcomes in adolescence.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Liposuction for Lipedema Significantly Reduces Benzodiazepine Dependence: A Prospective Cohort Study.Aesthetic plastic surgery · 2026Observational
- [The importance of psychiatry in the care and research of Post-COVID].Der Nervenarzt · 2026Review
- Assessing the therapeutic potential of PDE-5 inhibitors in adults: Insights from a multi-omics study.Physiological reports · 2026Article
- IL-1α and CRP as key inflammatory mediators linking neuropathic pain, anxiety, and depression in major depressive disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Genetic clusters of BMI reveal symptom-specific causal effects on depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Depressive Symptom Trajectories and Incident Pain: The Role of Nocturnal Sleep Duration in Two Prospective Cohort Studies.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2026Article
- Memory B Cells in Major Depressive Disorder: Toward Mechanistic and Clinical Refinement.Current medical science · 2026Article
- IL-37 and Neuroimmune Mechanisms Relevant to Depressive and Anxiety Disorders: A Scoping Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
129 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
We examined whether inflammation is uniformly associated with all depressive and anxiety symptoms, and whether these associations are potentially causal. Data was from 147,478 individuals from the UK Biobank (UKB) and 2,905 from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). Circulating C-reactive protein (CRP) was measured in both cohorts and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in NESDA. Genetic instruments for these proteins were obtained from published GWAS and UKB. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with self-report questionnaires. In NESDA, neurovegetative (appetite, sleep, psychomotor) symptoms were disaggregated as increased vs. decreased. In joint analyses, higher CRP was associated with depressive symptoms of depressed mood (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.05-1.08), altered appetite (OR = 1.25, 95%CI = 1.23-1.28), sleep problems (OR = 1.05, 95%CI = 1.04-1.06), and fatigue (OR = 1.12, 95% CI = 1.11-1.14), and with anxiety symptoms of irritability (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.05-1.08) and worrying control (OR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.02-1.04). In NESDA, higher IL-6 was additionally associated with anhedonia (OR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.12-1.52). Higher levels of both CRP (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.13-1.43) and IL-6 (OR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.07-1.49) were associated with increased sleep. Higher CRP was associated with increased appetite (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.08-1.35) while higher IL-6 with decreased appetite (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.18-1.79). In Mendelian Randomisation analyses, genetically predicted higher IL-6 activity was associated with increased risk of fatigue (estimate = 0.25, SE = 0.08) and sleep problems (estimate = 0.19, SE = 0.07). Inflammation was associated with core depressive symptoms of low mood and anhedonia and somatic/neurovegetative symptoms of fatigue, altered sleep and appetite changes. Less consistent associations were found for anxiety. The IL-6/IL-6R pathway could be causally linked to depression. Experimental studies are required to further evaluate causality, mechanisms, and usefulness of immunotherapies for depressive symptoms.
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