ELEVATED INFLAMMATION LEVELS IN DEPRESSED ADULTS WITH A HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD MALTREATMENT

By A. Danese, Terrie E. Moffitt, C. Pariante, Antony Ambler, Richie Poulton, Avshalom Caspi. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2008

645 citations recorded by the source corpus.

CONTEXT The association between depression and inflammation is inconsistent across research samples. OBJECTIVE This study tested the hypothesis that a history of childhood maltreatment could identify a subgroup of depressed individuals with elevated inflammation levels, thus helping to explain previous inconsistencies. DESIGN Prospective longitudinal cohort study. SETTING New Zealand. PARTICIPANTS A representative birth cohort of 1,000 individuals was followed to age 32 years as part of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Study members were assessed for history of childhood maltreatment and current depression. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Inflammation was assessed by a clinically-relevant categorical measure of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP >3mg/L), and a dimensional inflammation factor indexing the shared variance of continuous measures of hsCRP, fibrinogen, and white blood cells. RESULTS Although depression was associated with high hsCRP (RR=1.45; 95%CI=1.06;1.99), this association was significantly attenuated and no longer significant when the effect of childhood maltreatment was taken into account. Individuals with current depression and childhood maltreatment history were more likely to show high hsCRP levels than controls (N=27; RR=2.07; 95%CI=1.23;3.47). In contrast, individuals with current depression only showed a non-significant elevation in risk (N=109; RR=1.40; 95%CI=0.97;2.01). Results generalized to the inflammation factor. The elevated inflammation levels in depressed+maltreated individuals were not explained by correlated risk factors, such as depression recurrence, low socioeconomic status in childhood or adulthood, poor health, or smoking. CONCLUSIONS A history of childhood maltreatment contributes to the co-occurrence of depression and inflammation. Information about experiences of childhood maltreatment may help to identify depressed individuals with elevated inflammation levels and thus cardiovascular disease risk.

Subfields: Behavioral Neuroscience, Biological Psychiatry, Clinical Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4fbdc76fe829ba2c261e94f4b00e5826e56fbe98

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Behavioral Neuroscience

In Biological Psychiatry

In Clinical Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Immune System to Brain Signaling: Neuropsychopharmacological Implications (2011, background): “…with non-response to treatment with conventional antidepressant medications as well as early life stress, which is likewise associated with an antidepressant treatment non response (Sluzewska et al., 1997; Lanquillon et al., 2000; Nemeroff et al., 2003; Danese et al., 2007; Danese et al., 2008).”
Adverse childhood experiences and life opportunities: Shifting the narrative (2017, neutral): “…factors that impact early brain development (McCrory, De Brito, & Viding, 2011; Shonkoff, Boyce, & McEwen, 2009; Shonkoff & Garner, 2012; Danese et al., 2008), the immune system (Bierhaus et al., 2003), and the endocrine system (Colborn, 2004; Roth, Lubin, Funk, & Sweatt, 2009; Szyf,…”
Building a framework for global surveillance of the public health implications of adverse childhood experiences. (2010, background): “Promising avenues of research in this arena include gene–experience interaction,(44) the influence of early life experience on genomic expression (epigenetics),(45) and the role of inflammation.(46) The complex interplay of gene–environment interactions has been reviewed by an earlier study.”
Prevalence of low-grade inflammation in depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of CRP levels (2019, background): “…et al., 1985; Penninx et al., 2003; Ladwig et al., 2005; Liukkonen et al., 2006; O’brien et al., 2006; Almeida et al., 2007; Kling et al., 2007; Danese et al., 2008; Nilsson et al., 2008; Cizza et al., 2009; Harley et al., 2010; Ma et al., 2011; Naghashpour et al., 2011; Hannestad et al.,…”
Paradise Lost: The Neurobiological and Clinical Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect. (2016, background): “Subsequently Danese, Pariente, and their colleagues (Danese et al., 2007, 2008) using the approximately 1,000 subjects in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study reported that maltreated children exhibit a significant and graded increase in C-reactive protein (CRP) 20 years…”
Inflammatory Cytokines in Depression: Neurobiological Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications (2013, background): “…that may exhibit increased inflammation and that may be less responsive to standard antidepressant therapy, persons with a history of childhood trauma tend to have higher inflammatory biomarkers as adults and also exhibit higher rates of depression (Danese et al., 2007, Danese et al., 2008).”
Childhood maltreatment predicts unfavorable course of illness and treatment outcome in depression: a meta-analysis. (2011, background): “For example, maltreated individuals tend to have elevated inflammation levels (7, 9), which have been associated with recurrent depressive episodes (10) and poor treatment response (11).”
Psychological Stress in Childhood and Susceptibility to the Chronic Diseases of Aging: Moving Towards a Model of Behavioral and Biological Mechanisms (2011, background): “Matthews, K. A., & Gallo, L. C. (2011). Psychological perspectives on pathways linking socioeconomic status and physical health.”
Current research trends in early life stress and depression: review of human studies on sensitive periods, gene-environment interactions, and epigenetics. (2012, neutral): “…include glucocorticoid resistance, increased levels of inflammation, increased central corticotropin-releasing hormone activity and decreased activity of the prosocial neuropeptide, oxytocin (for example, Carpenter et al., 2004; Danese et al., 2008, 2011; Heim et al., 2008a, 2009a, 2009b).”
Stress and neuroinflammation: a systematic review of the effects of stress on microglia and the implications for mental illness (2016, background): “cytokines in childhood and are also associated with the high risk of mental illness in adulthood (Khandaker et al. 2014; Danese et al. 2008).”
Cytokine Targets in the Brain: Impact on Neurotransmitters and Neurocircuits (2013, background): “[11–13] These associations are in part due to (1) the ability of cytokines to sabotage and circumvent mechanisms of action of conventional antidepressant agents including cytokine effects on neurotransmitter function and synaptic plasticity (e.”
Inflammation: depression fans the flames and feasts on the heat. (2015, background): “Among adults with major depression, those with a history of earlymaltreatment hadhigherCRP levels than thosewithout such a history (60).”
Psychoneuroimmunology Meets Neuropsychopharmacology: Translational Implications of the Impact of Inflammation on Behavior (2012, background): “…with a current major depression and a documented history of childhood maltreatment were over two times more likely to show high peripheral blood concentrations of high-sensitivity (hs) CRP (43 mg/l) compared with depressed individuals without a history of childhood abuse (Danese et al, 2008).”