Cerebrospinal fluid IL-8 levels reflect symptoms of alexithymia in patients with non-inflammatory neurological disorders
Abstrakt
Several recent findings indicate that various interactions between nervous and immune system are important in the pathophysiology of alexithymia. These findings show that a significant role in developing alexithymia may play proinflammatory cytokines.
Recent data also indicate that negative emotions related to depressive symptoms and anxiety are related to disturbed levels of interleukin-8 (IL-8). These findings suggest that IL-8 could present also useful immunological marker related to emotional dysregulation in alexithymia.
In the present study we have performed psychometric measurement of alexithymia (TAS-20), depression (BDI-II) and anxiety (SAS), and immunochemical measure of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum levels of IL-8 in 33 inpatients with non-inflammatory neurological disorders (NIND) (mean age 38.8 +/- 12.5). The results show that IL-8 in CSF is significantly correlated with TAS-20 (Spearman R = 0.46, p = 0.007) and SAS (Spearman R = 0.44, p = 0.009) but not to BDI-II.