Depression, traumatic stress and interleukin-6.
BACKGROUND
Recent evidence indicates that various types of interactions between nervous and immune system are important in pathogenesis of depression. These findings show that a significant role in developing depression play pro-inflammatory cytokines that may mediate its psychological, and neurobiological manifestations. Great importance among these cytokine molecules plays interleukin-6 (IL-6). There is growing evidence that this inflammatory process related to depression may be influenced by psychological stress as well as organic inflammatory conditions. These findings suggest that specific influences related to traumatic stress and dissociation could be found in close relationship to increased level of cytokine IL-6.


METHODS
In the present study we have performed psychometric measurement of depression (BDI-II), traumatic stress symptoms (TSC-40) and dissociation (DES, SDQ-20), and immunochemical measure of serum IL-6 in 40 inpatients with unipolar depression (mean age 42.3+/-6.8).


RESULTS
The results show that IL-6 is significantly correlated to BDI-II (Spearman R=0.47, p<0.01), TSC-40 (Spearman R=0.32, p<0.05), SDQ-20 (Spearman R=0.34, p<0.05) but not to DES (Spearman R=0.25, p=0.11).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of the present study indicate that increased level of IL-6 in depression could be directly related to symptoms of traumatic stress and somatoform dissociation.
Department of Psychiatry, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. petrbob@netscape.net
Petr
P
Bob
Jiri
J
Raboch
Michael
M
Maes
Marek
M
Susta
Josef
J
Pavlat
Denisa
D
Jasova
Jan
J
Vevera
Jana
J
Uhrova
Hana
H
Benakova
Tomas
T
Zima
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology
D015850:Interleukin-6