C-reactive protein and interleukin 6 receptor in post-traumatic stress disorder: A pilot study

Background: it has been reported that psychological stress in humans is ass ociated with a derangement of biological homeostasis, This pilot study aime d to examine the inflammatory response to post-traumatic stress disorder (P TSD) through measurements of the serum levels of the receptor to interleuki n 6 (sIL-6r) and C-reactive protein (CRP), in relation to measures of psych ological disturbance, Methods: 15 patients with established PTSD and eight control patients with musculoskeletal injuries were studied at least three months after their index trauma. All completed revised impact of events sca le (RIES), Davidson's trauma scale (DTS) and the general health questionnai re (GHQ), and gave blood samples that were assayed for CRP and sIL-6r, Stat istical analysis was by the Mann-Whitney U-Wilcoxon rank sum tests, Results : positive relationships were found between sIL-6r and the RIES intrusion s core (P = 0.026), and between CRP and DTS intrusion scores (P = 0.016), GHQ depression (P = 0.028), and RIES intrusion (P = 0.044) in the case group, Discussion: we have demonstrated a relationship between post-traumatic psyc hological and biological disturbance, which provides the basis for further research on the effects of psychological disturbance on physical recovery a fter injury, (C) 2001 Academic Press.