Neuroinflammation in Depressive and Related Common Mental Disorders (CMD)

Dear Colleagues,

The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the crucial role of immune and endocrine markers in depression and related common mental disorders (CMD). Scar theories posit and show that elevated transdiagnostic CMD symptoms (e.g., worry) could lead to increased endocrine dysfunction and inflammation via chronic, stress-induced, wear-and-tear of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and related physiological systems. Simultaneously, vulnerability theories propose and show that increased inflammation and endocrine dysfunction predict worse CMD symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress) in children, adolescents, and adults. Despite the progress on this topic to date, the moderators and potential mediators of the bidirectional links between immune or endocrine dysfunction and CMD remain open to inquiry.

Our Special Issue thus aims to enhance understanding of the potential biopsychosocial and neural mediators of CMD–immune and endocrine dysfunction relations, and for whom these relations tend to occur more strongly.

We seek in-depth analyses of theories that propose that endocrine, proinflammatory proteins, and related substrates are notably linked to CMD symptoms, especially for populations vulnerable to heightened, chronic, and long-term exposure to stressors. Further, we determine if scarring, vulnerability, and correlational processes occur via perseverative cognitions (cf. immunocognitive model of psychopathology), emotion regulation, and related factors. To this end, these efforts may optimize depression and related CMD therapies based on immune and endocrine profiles (cf. precision psychiatry).

In sum, our Special Issue aims to solicit papers that relay an overview or critical evaluation of the transdiagnostic role of immune and endocrine markers in depression and related CMD consistent with the following themes: (1) neuroimaging and prospective studies on the mediators of relations between CMD and immune/endocrine markers; (2) moderator analyses identifying for whom relations between CMD and immune or endocrine markers occur more strongly by examining biopsychosocial moderators; and (3) description of clinical applications of current immunopsychiatry and psychoneuroendocrinology theories to optimize cognitive-behavioral and related therapies.

Dr. Nur Hani Zainal
Guest Editor

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• inflammation
• endocrine
• neural correlates
• depression
• common mental disorders
• risk/vulnerability factors
• cognitive functioning
• health psychology
• biological psychiatry
• emotion regulation