SynthesisEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2022
Effects of antidepressant drug therapy with or without physical exercise on inflammatory biomarkers in major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physical Activity interventions on health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in major depressive disorder (MDD): a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Disentangling the biological mechanisms underlying the effects of physical exercise in major depressive disorder: a comprehensive systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Neural, Anti-Inflammatory, and Clinical Effects of Transauricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- The effect of physical exercise on depression among college students: a systematic review and meta-analysis.PeerJ · 2024Pooled it
- Physical exercise and major depressive disorder in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Does inflammation moderate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on depressive symptoms? Results of an interventional study in children and adolescents.European journal of nutrition · 2026Trial
- Integrating a Physical Therapy Program into Usual Care for Hospital Inpatients with Major Depressive Disorder: Findings from a Case Series.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Genetic perspectives on the comorbidity of anxiety and mood disorders with cardiovascular disease.Nature cardiovascular research · 2026Review
- Premature aging in serious mental illness.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Diagnostic and Predictive Utility of Plasma Phosphoethanolamine Levels in Depressive Disorder: A Naturalistic Observational Study.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2025Observational
- Sertraline and inflammatory markers in major depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of general psychiatry · 2025Review
- Effect of Different Exercise Modalities on Inflammatory Markers in Individuals with Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of antidepressant drug therapy (with or without physical exercise) on peripheral inflammatory markers in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).
methodsMEDLINE, PyscINFO, Embase, and Google Scholar databases were searched until May 2020. Randomized trials that measured at least one inflammatory biomarker and included adult outpatients with MDD under antidepressant drug therapy (any drug) with or without physical exercise (any modality) were eligible. Results were summarized using the standardized mean difference (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) under a random-effects model. The Cochrane risk of bias tool (2010) was used to evaluate the risk of bias in the included trials.
resultsSixty-three trials were identified, encompassing data from 3482 patients, and 20 investigated biomarkers. Trials had biases across multiple domains, rising concerns primarily to selection bias/performance bias/detection bias/attrition bias. SMDs between pre- and post-results indicated a significant reduction in the levels of IL-2 (SMD, - 0.25; 95% CI, - 0.41 to - 0.09, P = 0.002), IL-6 (SMD, - 0.19; 95% CI, - 0.35 to - 0.025, P = 0.024), IL-10 (SMD, - 0.32; 95% CI, - 0.57 to - 0.07, P = 0.011), and serum cortisol (SMD, - 0.35; 95% CI, - 0.58 to - 0.12, P = 0.002). Evidence supporting the influence of physical exercise combined with antidepressant drugs on peripheral inflammatory markers in MDD is sparse and heterogeneous.
conclusionThere is some evidence that antidepressant drug therapy is associated with an overall positive reduction in inflammatory markers, but the evidence is heterogeneous. Further research linking how inflammatory biomarkers modulate physiology related to antidepressant response is required.
trial registrationCRD42020220735.
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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.