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CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1871-5273
ISSN (Online): 1996-3181

Research Article

Elevated C-reactive Protein Levels in Women with Bipolar Disorder may be Explained by a History of Childhood Trauma, Especially Sexual Abuse, Body Mass Index and Age

Author(s): Juliana Brum Moraes*, Michael Maes, Decio Sabbatini Barbosa, Thais Zagabria Ferrari, Marcela Keikko Spagolla Uehara, Andre F. Carvalho and Sandra Odebrecht Vargas Nunes

Volume 16, Issue 4, 2017

Page: [514 - 521] Pages: 8

DOI: 10.2174/1871527316666170407151514

Price: $65

Abstract

Objective and Background: To evaluate whether increased levels of high-sensitivity C- reactive protein (hs-CRP) observed in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) compared to healthy controls (HCs) could be influenced by a previous exposure to early life stress (ELS) independently from other explanatory or background variables, including age, body mass index (BMI), and the presence of cooccurring mental disorders.

Method: In this case-control study, we included 142 healthy controls and 92 bipolar I and II patients. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire was administered in a subset of 30 female patients with BD and 31 female HCs, and plasma hs-CRP was measured in all subjects. Multivariable models adjusted the data for the possible confounding variables.

Results: Serum hs-CRP levels were significantly higher in patients with BD compared to HCs. However, after controlling for BMI, these differences were no longer significant. Around 55% of the variance in hs-CRP was explained by cumulative and independent effects of age, BMI and childhood trauma, especially sexual abuse.

Conclusion: Our results show that increased hs-CRP levels in BD patients are more related to childhood trauma, especially sexual abuse, age and BMI than to a diagnosis of BD per se. These data suggest that peripheral inflammation may underpin the well-known detrimental effects of childhood maltreatment and obesity in the course of BD. Hs-CRP data are difficult to interpret if they are not adjusted for effects of BMI and age.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder, childhood sexual abuse, C-reactive protein, depression, early life stress, immune activation, inflammation.

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