Corcos Maurice, Guilbaud Olivier, Paterniti Sabrina, Curt Florence, Hjalmarsson Linea, Moussa Marlène, Chambry Jean, Loas Gwenolé, Chaouat Gérard, Jeammet Philippe
Department of Psychiatry of Adolescents and Young Adults, Institut Mutualiste Montsouris, 42 Bd Jourdan, 75014 Paris, France.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2004 May;29(4):557-62. doi: 10.1016/s0306-4530(03)00080-5.
Some studies suggest that inaccuracy in recognizing and describing emotional states, combined with a highly descriptive mode of expression, as in alexithymia, may influence the immune response. We therefore investigated in healthy women the relationship between alexithymia and circulating levels of IL-1, IL-2 and IL-4. Seventeen mentally and physically healthy women aged between 20 and 25 years completed psychological questionnaires to assess alexithymia (Toronto Alexithymia Scale: TAS) and depressed mood (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale: HAD). Serum concentrations of IL-1, IL-2 and IL-4 were measured by ELISA. We found a significant positive correlation between serum levels of IL-4 and TAS score (r=0.55; p=0.021) and between factor 1 of the TAS (difficulty in identifying feelings) and IL-4 (r=0.57; p=0.017) while serum IL-1 and IL-2 were not detected in ten and six patients, respectively. Although there was a significant correlation between age and IL-4 levels, a linear regression with BMI, age, depressed mood and TAS as independent variables showed that only alexithymia could predict significantly increased levels of IL-4. Alexithymia and difficulty in identifying feelings could be associated with increased levels of IL-4 which may result in chronic impairment of pro/anti-inflammatory cytokine balance with psychological and somatic consequences. Nevertheless, these intriguing findings would deserve replication and extension in a larger sample of subjects.
一些研究表明，识别和描述情绪状态的不准确，再加上像述情障碍中那样高度描述性的表达方式，可能会影响免疫反应。因此，我们在健康女性中研究了述情障碍与白细胞介素-1（IL-1）、白细胞介素-2（IL-2）和白细胞介素-4循环水平之间的关系。17名年龄在20至25岁之间身心健康的女性完成了心理问卷，以评估述情障碍（多伦多述情障碍量表：TAS）和抑郁情绪（医院焦虑抑郁量表：HAD）。通过酶联免疫吸附测定法（ELISA）测量血清中IL-1、IL-2和IL-4的浓度。我们发现血清IL-4水平与TAS评分之间存在显著正相关（r = 0.55；p = 0.021），以及TAS的因子1（识别情感困难）与IL-4之间存在显著正相关（r = 0.57；p = 0.017），而分别在10名和6名患者中未检测到血清IL-1和IL-2。尽管年龄与IL-4水平之间存在显著相关性，但以体重指数（BMI）、年龄、抑郁情绪和TAS作为自变量的线性回归表明，只有述情障碍能够显著预测IL-4水平的升高。述情障碍和识别情感困难可能与IL-4水平升高有关，这可能导致促炎/抗炎细胞因子平衡的慢性损害，并产生心理和躯体后果。然而，这些有趣的发现值得在更大的受试者样本中进行重复和扩展。
