ReviewFrontiers in psychiatry2024
Efficacy and acceptability of anti-inflammatory agents in major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 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
29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Oxidative Stress and Neuroimaging Alterations in Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Altered Cytokine Levels in the First Episode of Major Depression and in Antidepressant-Naïve Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- The interaction between the immune system and the autonomic nervous system in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder: a scoping review.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Review
- TNF-dependent regulation of synaptic plasticity and neuronal activity: implications for psychiatric disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Systemic inflammation and mental health: A J-shaped dose-response pattern in depression based on NHANES 2005 to 2018.Medicine · 2026Article
- Alterations of microRNAs across human and mouse limbic brain areas: molecular mechanisms and biological processes involved in major depressive disorder.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Review
- Peripheral blood transcriptomic biomarkers for predicting antidepressant response in major depressive disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Interleukins in Major Depressive Disorder: Lessons From Autoimmune Diseases and Pathways to Clinical Translation.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Review
- Serum inflammatory cytokines in the progression of depression.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Longitudinal trajectories of depressive symptoms in children are associated with baseline inflammation and HIV status.Communications health · 2026Article
- The kynurenine pathway in depression and schizophrenia: convergent signals, divergent states, and clinical signatures.EXCLI journal · 2026Review
- Associations of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen with depressive symptoms among community-dwelling older adults in Guangzhou, China: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- From synapse to system: mechanistic pathways of neural signaling dysfunction in psychiatric disorders.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Imbalance of the Brain-Gut-Microbiota Axis in Major Depressive Disorder: From Pathogenesis to Clinical Translation.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- How three different theories of depression converge at inflammation.Discover mental health · 2025Review
- Relationship between body mass index, gray matter volume and peripheral inflammation in patients with post-COVID condition.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2025Article
- Ginsenoside Rh1 inhibits tumor growth in mice with colorectal cancer and depressive symptoms via modulation of the gut microbiota and tumor microenvironment.Molecular medicine reports · 2025Article
- Stratifying the Inflamed Endotype in Difficult-to-Treat Depression: A Roadmap from Biomarkers to Precision Immunopsychiatry.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2025Article
- Systemic Inflammation at the Crossroad of Major Depressive Disorder and Comorbidities: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Anti-inflammatory agents have emerged as a potential new therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD). In this meta-analysis, our aim was to evaluate the antidepressant effect of anti-inflammatory agents and compare their efficacy. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search across multiple databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Review, Cochrane Trial, and ClinicalTrials.gov, to identify eligible randomized clinical trials. The primary outcome measures of our meta-analysis were efficacy and acceptability, while the secondary outcome measures focused on remission rate and dropout rate due to adverse events. We used odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) to present our results. Results: A total of 48 studies were included in our analysis. In terms of efficacy, anti-inflammatory agents demonstrated a significant antidepressant effect compared to placebo (OR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.41-2.97, p = 0.0002). Subgroup analyses revealed that anti-inflammatory agents also exhibited significant antidepressant effects in the adjunctive therapy subgroup (OR = 2.17, 95% CI: 1.39-3.37, p = 0.0006) and in MDD patients without treatment-resistant depression subgroup (OR = 2.33, 95% CI: 1.53-3.54, p < 0.0001). Based on the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) value of network meta-analysis, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (SUCRA value = 81.6) demonstrated the highest acceptability among the included anti-inflammatory agents. Conclusion: In summary, our meta-analysis demonstrates that anti-inflammatory agents have significant antidepressant effects and are well-accepted. Furthermore, adjunctive therapy with anti-inflammatory agents proved effective in treating MDD. Among the evaluated anti-inflammatory agents, NSAIDs exhibited the highest acceptability, although its efficacy is comparable to placebo. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=422004), identifier CRD42023422004.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic 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 Socratic graph.