Background

Traumatic experiences are strongly predictive of adverse mental health outcomes. Experimental studies have demonstrated that systemic inflammation can increase reactivity to threatening stimuli. It is not known whether naturally occurring inflammation amplifies the impact of traumatic experiences on mental health. Here we test whether incident traumatic events are more predictive of adverse mental health outcomes for individuals with greater pre-trauma systemic inflammation in a racially and ethnically diverse cohort study of youth assigned male at birth who identify as sexual or gender minorities (ages 16–29, n = 518), a group at high risk for trauma exposure.

Methods

Measures of inflammation, depression symptom severity, and perceived stress were measured at baseline. One year later, depression symptom severity and perceived stress were measured again, and participants reported the traumatic events they had experienced in the intervening year.

Results

In a model adjusted for baseline depression symptom severity and other key covariates, we found that higher baseline levels of interleukin-1β amplified the effect of incident trauma exposure on depression symptom severity at follow-up (β = 0.234, SE = 0.080, P = 0.004). In a model adjusted for baseline perceived stress and other key covariates, we found that higher baseline scores on a multi-marker inflammatory index amplified the effect of incident trauma exposure on perceived stress at follow-up (β = 0.243, SE = 0.083, P = 0.003).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that greater pre-trauma inflammation may predict poorer mental health following trauma exposure. Understanding how inflammation interacts with trauma to shape mental health may generate novel insights for preventing and treating the debilitating psychological consequences of trauma.

中文翻译：

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创伤事件和心理健康：创伤前全身炎症的放大效应

 背景

创伤经历可以强烈预测不良的心理健康结果。实验研究表明，全身炎症可以增加对威胁刺激的反应性。目前尚不清楚自然发生的炎症是否会放大创伤经历对心理健康的影响。在这里，我们在一项种族和民族多样化的队列研究中，测试了创伤事件是否更能预测创伤前全身性炎症较严重的个体的不良心理健康结果，研究对象是出生时被指定为性少数或性别少数的男性（16-29岁） ，n = 518），这是一个遭受创伤的高风险群体。

 方法

在基线时测量炎症、抑郁症状严重程度和感知压力的指标。一年后，再次测量抑郁症状的严重程度和感知压力，参与者报告了他们在这一年中经历的创伤事件。

 结果

在根据基线抑郁症状严重程度和其他关键协变量进行调整的模型中，我们发现较高的白细胞介素-1β基线水平放大了事件创伤暴露对随访时抑郁症状严重程度的影响（β = 0.234，SE = 0.080，P = 0.004）。在根据基线感知压力和其他关键协变量进行调整的模型中，我们发现多标志物炎症指数的基线得分较高，放大了事件创伤暴露对随访时感知压力的影响（β = 0.243，SE = 0.083，P = 0.003）。

 结论

这些发现表明，更大的创伤前炎症可能预示着创伤后心理健康状况较差。了解炎症如何与创伤相互作用以塑造心理健康可能会为预防和治疗创伤造成的衰弱性心理后果产生新的见解。