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
1 Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia
2 Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Psychosomatic and Palliative, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia


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Creative Commons License
© 2023 Parlindungan et al.

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.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia, Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia; Tel: +6282230112172; E-mail: faisal.parlindungan@alumni.ui.ac.id


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.

Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, Arthritis rheumatoid, Inflammation, Interleukin-6, Interleukin-17, Tumor necrosis factor-alpha.