Hickie, I, Lloyd, A · International journal of immunopharmacology · 1995 · DOI
This paper suggests that immune molecules called cytokines—which your body produces during infections or inflammation—may affect your brain and behavior in ways that look like psychiatric symptoms such as depression, fatigue, loss of appetite, and difficulty thinking clearly. The authors review evidence from various illnesses where these immune-related behavioral changes happen together, including ME/CFS, and propose that cytokines may be the biological link between immune activation and these symptoms.
This early conceptual paper provided important theoretical framework for understanding why ME/CFS patients experience both immune abnormalities and neuropsychiatric symptoms like cognitive impairment and fatigue—suggesting these are not separate problems but linked through cytokine signaling in the brain. For researchers, it identified specific biological mechanisms and encouraged systematic investigation of immune-behavior relationships that have since become central to ME/CFS research.
This review does not establish causation between cytokines and psychiatric symptoms; it proposes mechanisms without presenting original data. It does not prove that cytokines are the sole or primary cause of neuropsychiatric syndromes in ME/CFS or other conditions, nor does it demonstrate that treating cytokine abnormalities would resolve these symptoms.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →