Correlation between serum levels of interleukin-4 and alexithymia scores in healthy female subjects: preliminary findings

• Published in: Psychoneuroendocrinology Vol. 29; no. 4; pp. 557 - 562
• Main Authors: Corcos, Maurice, Guilbaud, Olivier, Paterniti, Sabrina, Curt, Florence, Hjalmarsson, Linea, Moussa, Marlène, Chambry, Jean, Loas, Gwenolé, Chaouat, Gérard, Jeammet, Philippe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2004; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Affective Symptoms - blood; Affectivity. Emotion; Alexithymia; Biological and medical sciences; Cytokines; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Interleukin 4; Interleukin-1 - blood; Interleukin-2 - blood; Interleukin-4 - blood; Neuropsychological Tests; Personality. Affectivity; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reference Values; Statistics as Topic; Cytokines; Interleukin 4; Alexithymia; Human; Affect affectivity; Questionnaire; Investigation method; Interleukin 2; Cytokine; Interleukin 1; Female; Emotion emotionality; Experimental study
• ISSN: 0306-4530; 1873-3360
• 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.