Chronic elevation of systemic inflammation is observed in a wide range of disorders including PTSD, depression, and traumatic brain injury, all of which are relatively common in United States Veterans. Although previous work has demonstrated a link between inflammation and various diagnoses separately, few studies have examined transdiagnostic symptoms and inflammation within the same model. The objective of this study was to examine relationships between psychiatric and health variables and systemic inflammation, and to determine whether mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and/or exposure to blast munitions moderate these relationships. Confirmatory factor analysis in a large sample (N = 357) of post-9/11 Veterans demonstrated good fit to a four-factor model reflecting traumatic stress, affective, somatic, and metabolic latent variables. Hierarchical regression models revealed that each of the latent variables were associated with higher levels of systemic inflammation. However, the strongest relationship with inflammation emerged among those who had both war-zone blast exposures and metabolic dysregulation, even after adjusting for mental health latent variables. Exploratory analyses showed that blast exposure was associated with metabolic dysregulation in a dose-response manner, with self-reported closer blast proximity associated with the greatest metabolic dysregulation. Together, these results provide greater understanding of the types of symptoms most strongly associated with inflammation, and underscore the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle to reduce the impact of obesity and other metabolic symptoms on future chronic disease in younger to middle-aged Veterans.

中文翻译：

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爆炸暴露与全身性炎症的转诊健康症状之间的关系

在包括PTSD，抑郁症和脑外伤在内的各种疾病中均观察到全身性炎症的慢性升高，所有这些疾病在美国退伍军人中相对普遍。尽管先前的工作已经证明炎症和各种诊断之间存在联系，但是很少有研究检查同一模型内的转诊症状和炎症。这项研究的目的是检查精神病学和健康变量与全身性炎症之间的关系，并确定轻度创伤性脑损伤（mTBI）和/或暴露于爆炸弹药是否可缓解这些关系。在9/11之后的大型退伍军人样本（N = 357）中的确认性因子分析表明，该模型非常适合四因子模型，该模型反映了创伤压力，情感，躯体和代谢潜伏变量。分层回归模型显示，每个潜在变量与更高水平的全身性炎症相关。然而，即使在调整了精神健康潜在变量之后，那些在战区爆炸暴露和新陈代谢失调的人群中，与炎症之间的关系最密切。探索性分析显示，爆炸暴露与剂量依赖性反应的代谢异常有关，自我报告的爆炸附近距离最大与代谢异常最大有关。总之，这些结果使人们对与炎症最密切相关的症状类型有了更深入的了解，并强调了保持健康的生活方式以减少肥胖和其他代谢症状对年轻至中年退伍军人未来慢性病的影响的重要性。