Identifying risk factors that distinguish disease onset from chronicity is crucial for understanding potential causal mechanisms and to devise effective strategies for treatment, prevention, and prediction. Studies of peripheral blood concentrations of inflammatory markers, such as cytokines (eg, interleukin [IL]-6) and acute-phase proteins (eg, C-reactive protein), have provided some of the most consistent evidence implicating low-grade systemic inflammation in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. 1 These studies have hitherto been subject to several systematic reviews and meta-analyses. 2 , 3 In this issue of The Lancet Psychiatry, Sean Halstead and colleagues 4 add to this evidence base through a systematic review and meta-analysis of blood inflammatory marker alterations in patients with acute and chronic schizophrenia-spectrum disorder.