Avaliação da inflamação no transtorno afetivo bipolar e sua associação com a duração da doença

Abstract

Background: Recent studies have shown that inflammatory processes are increased in bipolar disorder (BD). This study aimed to evaluate measures of acute inflammation in patients with BD as compared to controls, as well as to verify the association of these measures with clinical characteristics. Methods: The study compared patients with BD (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 23). The patients were euthymic and were on outpatient treatment. The inflammatory response was assessed by acute phase markers C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AGA) and protein electrophoresis (PE). Results: Patients showed a euthymic time of 22.44 (SD = 21.51) months and disease duration of 16.31 (SD = 12.7) years. We did not find statistically significant differences regarding the acute phase inflammatory markers between patients and controls. There was no association of inflammation and time of euthymia and total number of episodes. We found a positive correlation between CRP levels and disease duration years. Limitations: The small sample and the presence of atherosclerotic clinical comorbidities in one part of the sample may have generated confounding factors with other causes of inflammation. Conclusions: C-reactive protein is increased in euthymic bipolar patients who present a longer duration of the disease, suggesting that this increase may be associated with chronic inflammation of BD.