CRP and metabolic syndrome: Rethorst et al. (2014) previously demonstrated a positive association between the MDD and CRP levels. In addition, previous studies have shown that CRP, as an inflammatory marker, impacts the association between MDD and metabolic syndrome (Rethorst et al., 2014; Chirinos et al., 2017; Lamers et al., 2020). For instance, a former study has found a positive association between CRP and the presence of comorbid metabolic syndrome within individuals with depressed mood (Rethorst et al., 2014).