Insomnia, depression and inflammation in patients with allergy and the general population
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Inflammation has been suggested as potential mechanism linking sleep disturbance and depression. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are involved in regulation of sleep and insomnia and short/long sleep duration are associated with increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines and increased levels of C-reactive protein. Sleep disturbances in inflammatory disorders and their relationship to immunological markers remain poorly characterized.
The talk will focus on 2 studies. Study 1 aimed at characterizing the objective and subjective sleep problems in severe seasonal allergy, and to investigate their relationship to translocator protein (TSPO) and other inflammatory markers. Study 2 aimed at investigating inflammation as a possible mediator for the effect of sleep disturbance on development of depressive symptoms in the UK Biobank.
In short, study 1 showed evidence of fatigue, disturbed sleep and peripheral, but not central, inflammation in allergy. Study 2 showed that insomnia symptoms and depressive symptoms are associated cross-sectionally as well as longitudinally. However, neither insomnia symptoms, nor sleep duration were associated with higher CRP in fully adjusted models and inflammation did not mediate the longitudinal association between disturbed sleep and depression in the UK Biobank cohort.