CRP and depressive symptom measurement: Higher levels of CRP have been consistently found in cross-sectional studies and in population-based longitudinal studies of depression, often preceding the onset of illness (Gimeno et al., 2009, Khandaker et al., 2014, Wium-Andersen et al., 2013, Zalli et al., 2016), suggesting that inflammation could be a cause rather than simply a consequence of the illness; supporting this hypothesis, recently Mendelian randomization analyses of the UK Biobank sample found that IL-6 and CRP are likely to be causally linked with depression (Khandaker et al., 2019).