PTSD is associated with elevated inflammation: any impact on clinical practice?

ABSTRACT FROM: Passos IC, Vasconcelos-Moreno MP, Costa LG, et al. Inflammatory markers in post-traumatic stress disorder: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression. Lancet Psychiatry 2015;2:1002–12. What is already known on this topic Accumulating evidence indicates that elevated inflammation may play a causal role in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and in PTSD-related increased risk for cardiovascular, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.1 2 At the same time, studies examining levels of inflammatory markers in individuals with PTSD have had mixed results, with most showing higher but others showing similar or even lower levels of inflammation in individuals with PTSD compared with healthy controls.1 To summarise and make sense of this literature, Passos et al compared levels of inflammatory markers between people with and without PTSD using meta-analytic techniques. Methods of the study All potentially eligible cross-sectional or longitudinal studies...

Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - October 20, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: O'Donovan, A. Tags: Epidemiologic studies, Neurology, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Depressive disorder, Epidemiology Causes and risk factors Source Type: research