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

Title: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

Volume: 16 Issue: 4

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

Affiliation:

• Health Sciences Center, State University of Londrina, Av. Robert Koch, 60, ZIP: 86035-380 - Londrina - Parana,Brazil

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

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.

Cite this article as:

Moraes Brum Juliana*, Maes Michael, Barbosa Sabbatini Decio, Ferrari Zagabria Thais, Uehara Keikko Spagolla Marcela, Carvalho F. Andre and Nunes Odebrecht Vargas Sandra, 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, CNS & Neurological Disorders - Drug Targets 2017; 16 (4) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1871527316666170407151514

DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1871527316666170407151514	Print ISSN 1871-5273
Publisher Name Bentham Science Publisher	Online ISSN 1996-3181