Is depression associated with elevated C-reactive protein independent of genetic, health, and psychosocial factors?
Depression is associated with increased inflammation independent of known confounders, suggesting a core biological link.
The data indicate that the "genetic" contribution to increased inflammation in depression is due to regulation of eating and smoking habits rather than an "autoimmune" genetic predisposition. Moreover, the association between depression and increased inflammation even after full adjustment indicates either the presence of yet unknown or unmeasured psychosocial and clinical confounding factors or that a core biological association between depression and increased inflammation exists independently from confounders.
Pitharouli et al. (Fri,) studied this question.