Correlation between cytokines and anxious-depressive symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia

Objective: To establish the influence of cytokines on anxious-depressive manifestations in fibromyalgia (FM) patients.

Material and method: The study comprised 56 women (50.5±7.8 years) with FM and 32 healthy female controls (39.65±9.24 years). Psychiatric symptoms were analyzed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), while pain was assessed by means of a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNFα were assayed in serum using the Luminex-xMAP method. The statistical analysis was carried out using the SSPS statistical package.

Results: IL-8 values were significantly lower (p=.013) in patients than in controls. No differences were observed among IL-6, IL-10, and TNFα levels. When comparing cytokine levels with patient age, we observed a significant reduction in IL-6, IL-8, and TNFα in older patients. The values of these cytokines showed no relationship to the anxious-depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: In our series no differences in serum cytokines were seen between patients with FM and controls, with the exception of a reduction in IL-8 among patients with FM, and which could be attributed to the older age of these patients.