RESEARCH ARTICLE
Association between Proinflammatory Cytokines and Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Cross-sectional Study
Faisal Parlindungan1, *, Rudy Hidayat1, Anna Ariane1, Hamzah Shatri2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 19
E-location ID: e174501792304261
Publisher ID: e174501792304261
DOI: 10.2174/17450179-v19-e230510-2022-34
Article History:
Received Date: 25/08/2022Revision Received Date: 20/03/2023
Acceptance Date: 28/03/2023
Electronic publication date: 22/06/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients have a greater prevalence of anxiety and depression. Proinflammatory cytokines are elevated in RA. We aim to evaluate the association between systemic inflammation in RA and anxiety and depression.
Methods:
There were 31 RA patients, 16 with active disease activity and 15 in remission state; they were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and for RA disease activity using Disease Activity Score of 28 joints (DAS28) – CRP (C-reactive protein). Serum proinflammatory cytokines were measured, including interleukin (IL)-6, IL-17, and Tumour Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α).
Results:
Among 31 patients, ten patients showed anxiety symptoms, 19 patients showed depression symptoms, and two displayed mixed symptoms. Serum TNF-α levels were significantly higher in active disease than in the remission group (p-value 0.006). There was no association or correlation between proinflammatory cytokines to anxiety and depression symptoms in the active disease and remission groups.
Conclusion:
This suggests that other factors besides disease activity and state of systemic inflammation may cause anxiety and depression in RA patients.