2026 Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 210-215
Low-grade chronic inflammation has increasingly been recognized as a key contributor to the on set and persistence of psychiatric symptoms. Inflammatory cytokines transmit signals to the central nervous system not only via humoral pathways but also through neural routes, including afferent v agal pathways, leading to neuroinflammation, autonomic dysregulation, and alterations in neurotrans mitter metabolism. While standard pharmacotherapy based on neurotransmitter hypotheses remains essential, a substantial proportion of patients fail to achieve sufficient clinical improvement. This h ighlights the need to reinterpret psychiatric symptoms within the framework of systemic inflammati on affecting the brain. In this article, we propose the concept of the “Inflammatrix 16,” which sys tematically categorizes 16 contributory factors to chronic inflammation. We describe the underlying mechanisms of each factor and their associations with psychiatric symptoms and reduced mental performance. Furthermore, we discuss clinical strategies to visualize inflammatory inputs and integr ate nutritional interventions with pharmacotherapy.
