Ünal K, Taş Torun Y, Erol ME, Kurt ZK, Özbaş C. Could high serum C-reactive protein levels serve as a biomarker for children and adolescents diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder? World J Clin Pediatr 2026; 15(1): 115246 [DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.v15.i1.115246]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Kübranur Ünal, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Emniyet Mahallesi, Bandırma Caddesi, Ankara 06560, Türkiye. kubranurunal@gazi.edu.tr
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology, Clinical
Article-Type of This Article
Case Control Study
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This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Mar 9, 2026 (publication date) through Mar 9, 2026
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Journal Information of This Article
Publication Name
World Journal of Clinical Pediatrics
ISSN
2219-2808
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Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
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Ünal K, Taş Torun Y, Erol ME, Kurt ZK, Özbaş C. Could high serum C-reactive protein levels serve as a biomarker for children and adolescents diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder? World J Clin Pediatr 2026; 15(1): 115246 [DOI: 10.5409/wjcp.v15.i1.115246]
World J Clin Pediatr. Mar 9, 2026; 15(1): 115246 Published online Mar 9, 2026. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v15.i1.115246
Could high serum C-reactive protein levels serve as a biomarker for children and adolescents diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder?
Kübranur Ünal, Yasemin Taş Torun, Mehmet Emre Erol, Zeynep Kübra Kurt, Cansu Özbaş
Kübranur Ünal, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara 06560, Türkiye
Yasemin Taş Torun, Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara 06560, Türkiye
Mehmet Emre Erol, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Institute of Health Sciences, Gazi University, Ankara 06560, Türkiye
Zeynep Kübra Kurt, Child Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic, Ankara Etlik City Hospital, Ankara 06170, Türkiye
Cansu Özbaş, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Ankara 06560, Türkiye
Author contributions: Ünal K, Taş Torun Y, and Kurt ZK contributed to material preparation and data collection; Ünal K and Taş Torun Y contributed to supervision; Ünal K and Erol ME contributed to literature review; Ünal K and Erol ME contributed to data interpretation and writing - original draft; Ünal K and Kurt ZK contributed to conceptualization and study design; Özbaş C contributed to data analysis. All authors participated in the review and editing of the manuscript and provided final approval for the version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: The current study was conducted per the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. This retrospective study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Gazi University.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and/or their parents/legal guardians prior to enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: De-identified datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Kübranur Ünal, MD, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Gazi University, Emniyet Mahallesi, Bandırma Caddesi, Ankara 06560, Türkiye. kubranurunal@gazi.edu.tr
Received: October 14, 2025 Revised: October 28, 2025 Accepted: January 6, 2026 Published online: March 9, 2026 Processing time: 145 Days and 12.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study investigated the potential relationship between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and systemic inflammation in drug-naïve children and adolescents. Significantly higher C-reactive protein levels compared to healthy controls suggest a low-grade inflammatory process may be present in pediatric GAD. In contrast, no significant group differences were found in other circulatory immune markers. This selective pattern of elevation suggests that specific components of the inflammatory response may be activated in a limited manner in GAD. Furthermore, the positive correlation between clinical symptom severity and illness duration supports the potential impact of early diagnosis and intervention on symptom progression. However, larger sample sizes and longitudinal studies are needed to define causal relationships and clinical outcomes more robustly.
