| 1. |
- Andreasson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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A global measure of sickness behaviour : Development of the Sickness Questionnaire
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Health Psychology. - : SAGE Publications. - 1359-1053 .- 1461-7277. ; 23:11, s. 1452-1463
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Symptoms after inflammatory activation, so-called sickness behaviour, overlap with trans-diagnostic complaints. As no self-report questionnaire to assess sickness behaviour exists, we aimed to develop such an instrument, the Sickness Questionnaire. Items responsive to experimentally induced inflammatory activation (randomized double-blind study endotoxin (0.6 ng/kg) versus placebo, n = 52) were selected and the statistical properties were examined in 172 primary care patients. A principal component analysis indicated a one-factor solution (Cronbach's alpha = .86). This 10-item scale correlated with depression ( β = .41, p < .001), anxiety ( β = .36, p < .001), self-rated health ( β = .28, p < .001) and a single item of feeling sick ( β = .55, p < .001). The results support the adequacy of Sickness Questionnaire as a brief assessment instrument of perceived sickness behaviour.
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| 2. |
- Andreasson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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The effect of a transient immune activation on subjective health perception in two placebo controlled randomised experiments
- 2019
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 14:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background Patient-reported outcomes predict mortality and play increasingly important roles in care, but factors that modify central measures such as health ratings have been little investigated. Building on designated immune-to-brain pathways, we aimed to determine how a short-term induced inflammation response impacts self-reported health status. Methods Lipopolysaccharide injections were used to provoke acute systemic inflammatory responses in healthy men and women and were compared to placebo in two double-blind randomized experiments. In Experiment 1, 8 individuals (mean 24 years; SD = 3.7) received lipopolysaccharide 0.8 ng/kg once and placebo once in a cross-over design, and in Experiment 2, 52 individuals received either lipopolysaccharide 0.6 ng/kg or placebo once (28.6 years; SD = 7.1). Main outcomes were perceived health (general and current), sickness behaviour (like fatigue, pain and negative affect), and plasma interleukin-6, interleukin-8 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha, before and after injection. Results Compared to placebo, lipopolysaccharide lead to a deterioration in both self-rated general (Experiment 1, b = 1.88 for 0.8 ng/kg) and current health (Experiment 1 b = -3.00; and Experiment 2 b = -1.79) 1.5h after injection (p's<0.01), effects that remained after 4.5 to 5 hours (p's<0.05). The effect on current health in Experiment 2 was mediated by increased inflammation and sickness behaviour in response to lipopolysaccharide injection (beta = -0.28, p = 0.01). Conclusion Health is drastically re-evaluated during inflammatory activation. The findings are consistent with notions that inflammation forms part of health-relevant interoceptive computations of bodily state, and hint at one mechanism as to why subjective health predicts longevity.
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| 3. |
- Gordon, Amy R., et al.
(författare)
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Detection of Inflammation via Volatile Cues in Human Urine
- 2018
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Ingår i: Chemical Senses. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0379-864X .- 1464-3553. ; 43:9, s. 711-719
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Contagious disease is a major threat to survival, and the cost of relying on the immune system to defeat pathogens is high; therefore, behavioral avoidance of contagious individuals is arguably an adaptive strategy. Animal findings demonstrate the ability to detect and avoid sick individuals by the aid of olfactory cues, and a recent study indicated that human axillary odor also becomes more aversive as a function of immune activation. By injecting healthy human participants with lipopolysaccharide (0.6 ng/kg body weight) to experimentally induce inflammation, this study demonstrates that natural daily rhythms of urine odor-its perceived dimensions and volatile profile-are altered within hours of inflammation onset. Whereas healthy human urine decreases in averseness over the course of a single day, inflammation interrupts this process and results in an increased urine odor averseness and an altered volatile composition. These results support the notion that subtle and early cues of sickness may be detected and avoided, thereby complementing the immune system in its role of keeping us alive and healthy.
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| 4. |
- Gordon, Amy R., et al.
(författare)
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Human scent as a first-line defense against disease
- 2023
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Nature. - 2045-2322. ; 13:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Individuals may have a different body odor, when they are sick compared to healthy. In the non-human animal literature, olfactory cues have been shown to predict avoidance of sick individuals. We tested whether the mere experimental activation of the innate immune system in healthy human individuals can make an individuals' body odor be perceived as more aversive (intense, unpleasant, and disgusting). Following an endotoxin injection (lipopolysaccharide; 0.6 ng/kg) that creates a transient systemic inflammation, individuals smelled more unpleasant compared to a placebo group (saline injection). Behavioral and chemical analyses of the body odor samples suggest that the volatile components of samples from sick individuals changed qualitatively rather than quantitatively. Our findings support the hypothesis that odor cues of inflammation in axillary sweat are detectable just a few hours after experimental activation of the innate immune system. As such, they may trigger behavioral avoidance, hence constituting a first line of defense against pathogens of infected conspecifics.
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| 5. |
- Gordon, Amy R., et al.
(författare)
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The scent of disease
- 2015
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Ingår i: Chemical Senses. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0379-864X .- 1464-3553. ; 40:3, s. 254-254
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ability to detect diseases in conspecifics would be advantageous for the individual. In line with this, rodents avoid body odors of infected individuals. Two studies (Olsson et al. 20014; in prep.) indicated that this is possible by way of human smell and human observers. T-shirts from donors (worn for 4 hours) that had received an injection of endotoxin [0.8ng lipopolysaccharide (LPS) / kg body weight], which causes systemic inflammation, smelled more unpleasant, intense, and sick than shirts from donors that had received a placebo (Saline) injection. GC/MS analysis of the shirts suggested that the change of body odor was not due to a general increase of odorous compounds in the “sick shirts” compared to “placebo shirts” but rather to a qualitative change. Study 2 (ongoing) further investigated the nature of this perception. In a first experiment, we compared the body odor of 30 endotoxin (0.6ng LPS / kg body weight) and 21 placebo (Saline) donors. Again, body odors were sampled during 4 hours using T-shirts. Observers then smelled the shirts and rated intensity, pleasantness, and disgust. In a second experiment, urine from these donors were collected and was investigated in the same way with subjective ratings. Altogether the data suggest that systemic inflammation makes body odors more aversive within a few hours.
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| 6. |
- Hedman, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Health anxiety in a disease-avoidance framework : Investigation of anxiety, disgust and disease perception in response to sickness cues
- 2016
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Ingår i: Journal of Abnormal Psychology. - : American Psychological Association (APA). - 0021-843X .- 1939-1846. ; 125:7, s. 868-878
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Severe health anxiety is characterized by a debilitating fear of somatic illness, and avoidance of disease-related stimuli plays a key role in the maintenance of the disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate severe health anxiety within an evolutionary disease-avoidance framework. We hypothesized that, compared to healthy controls, participants with severe health anxiety would perceive others as sicker, more contagious, and less attractive. We also expected individuals with severe health anxiety to be more prone to avoid interaction with persons who appeared sick, as well as to respond with more health-related worry, more disgust, and more anxiety when confronting such individuals. In addition, this sensitivity was expected to be larger if people showed manifest sickness symptoms. Participants with and without severe health anxiety (N = 224) were exposed to facial photos with a varying degree of apparent sickness. Patients with severe health anxiety, compared to controls, rated apparently healthy people as being less healthy and less attractive. There were significant interaction effects showing that that the increase in disgust, anxiety, perceived contagiousness, and worry over one's own health as a function of how sick the person in the photo appeared, was significantly larger in the clinical sample compared to the healthy control sample (ps < .047). Results from regression analyses using health anxiety as a dimensional predictor also supported our hypotheses. We suggest that disgust and cognitive biases relating to the disease-avoidance model are significant features of severe health anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record
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| 7. |
- Jonsjö, Martin A., et al.
(författare)
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Patients with ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and chronic pain report similar level of sickness behavior as individuals injected with bacterial endotoxin at peak inflammation
- 2020
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Ingår i: Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health. - : Elsevier BV. - 2666-3546. ; 2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Chronic sickness behavior is implicated in ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and chronic pain but the level of subjective sickness behavior in these conditions has not been investigated or compared to other clinical and non-clinical samples, or to the level in experimental inflammation. Furthermore, the relationship between sickness behavior and self-rated health and functioning is not known in patients with ME/CFS and chronic pain. The aim of the present study was to investigate how sickness behavior in patients with chronic conditions differs from that in individuals with experimental acute sickness, primary care patients, the general population and healthy subjects. In addition, we wanted to explore how sickness behavior is related to self-rated health and health-related functioning.Methods: Sickness behavior was quantified using the sickness questionnaire (SicknessQ). Self-ratings were collected at one time-point in 6 different samples. Levels of sickness behavior in patients with ME/CFS (n = 38) and patients with chronic pain (n = 190) were compared to healthy subjects with lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced inflammation (n = 29), primary care patients (n = 163), individuals from the general population (n = 155) and healthy subjects (n = 48), using linear regression. Correlations and moderated regression analyses were used to investigate associations between sickness behavior and self-rated health and health-related functioning in ME/CFS, chronic pain and the general population.Results: LPS-injected individuals (M = 16.3), patients with ME/CFS (M = 16.1), chronic pain (M = 16.1) and primary care patients (M = 10.7) reported significantly higher SicknessQ scores than individuals from the general population (M = 5.4) and healthy subjects (M = 3.6) all p’s < 0.001). In turn, LPS-injected individuals, patients with ME/CFS and chronic pain reported significantly higher SicknessQ scores than primary care patients (p’s < 0.01). Higher levels of sickness behavior were associated with poorer self-rated health and health-related functioning (p’s < 0.01), but less so in patients with ME/CFS and chronic pain than in individuals from the general population.Conclusions: Patients with ME/CFS and chronic pain report similar high levels of sickness behavior; higher than primary care patients, and comparable to levels in experimental inflammation. Further study of sickness behavior in ME/CFS and chronic pain populations is warranted as immune-to-brain interactions and sickness behavior may be of importance for functioning as well as in core pathophysiological processes in subsets of patients.
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| 8. |
- Karshikoff, Bianka, et al.
(författare)
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Baseline Pro-Inflammatory Cytokine Levels Moderate Psychological Inflexibility in Behavioral Treatment for Chronic Pain
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Clinical Medicine. - : MDPI AG. - 2077-0383. ; 11:9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The medical and scientific communities struggle to understand chronic pain and find effective treatments. Multimodal approaches are encouraging but show significant individual differences. Methods: Seventy-eight persons (56 women) with chronic pain received Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and provided blood samples before and after treatment. The participants completed surveys with the blood sampling. Blood plasma was analyzed for IL-6 and TNF-α levels with the Olink Inflammation Panel (Olink Bioscience Uppsala, Sweden). The treatment effects and moderating effects of low-grade inflammation on changes in outcomes were analyzed using linear mixed models. Results: Pain interference (p < 0.001) and psychological inflexibility (p < 0.001) improved significantly during treatment, but pain intensity did not (p = 0.078). Cytokine levels did not change over the course of the treatment (IL-6/TNF-α p = 0.086/0.672). Mean baseline levels of IL-6 and TNF-α moderated improvement in psychological inflexibility during the course of treatment (p = 0.044), but cytokine levels did not moderate changes in pain interference (p = 0.205) or pain intensity (p = 0.536). Conclusions: Higher baseline inflammation levels were related to less improvement in psychological inflexibility. Low-grade inflammation may be one factor underlying the variability in behavioral treatment in chronic pain.
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| 9. |
- Karshikoff, Bianka, et al.
(författare)
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Editorial : Vulnerability and protective factors for inflammation-associated somatoform and mental disorders
- 2022
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Ingår i: Brain, behavior, and immunity. - : Elsevier. - 0889-1591 .- 1090-2139. ; 106, s. 227-230
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Over the past 30 years, research in psychoneuroimmunology and immunopsychiatry points to immune processes playing a part in the development and maintenance of various non-communicable disorders, including chronic pain (Grace et al., 2014), chronic fatigue (Lacourt et al., 2018), depression (Zunszain et al., 2013), anxiety (Michopoulos et al., 2016), psychosis (Ullah et al., 2021) and neurodegeneration (Park et al., 2020). Many of these disorders are characterized by a complex symptomatology, various comorbidities, and a difficulty to treat the disorder satisfactorily. Although recent research shows that immune alterations and inflammatory components may contribute to the pathophysiology of these diseases, inflammation is probably not sufficient to independently induce these disorders or maintain them. Not all individuals with a heightened inflammatory activity will develop one of these disorders, and some individuals with these disorders show no changes in immune parameters. This suggests the involvement of additional factors that interact with the immune system to cause vulnerability to, or a protection against, inflammation-associated disorders.In this special issue of Brain, Behavior and Immunity, we welcomed articles investigating predictors and moderators of inflammation-associated disorders, comorbidities, and behavioral changes. The studies included in this issue range from experimental human and animal studies to clinical investigations applying proteomic approaches. The disorders discussed include those related to aging and neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders, fatigue, and pain. The authors contributing to this special issue tackle some fundamental questions, including: Why do not all individuals with a heightened inflammatory activity develop one of these disorders? How can we protect against the neuropsychiatric effects of inflammation? Does inflammation interact with other pathological processes of clinical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease?
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| 10. |
- Karshikoff, Bianka, et al.
(författare)
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Inflammatory Blood Signature Related to Common Psychological Comorbidity in Chronic Pain
- 2023
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Ingår i: Biomedicines. - : MDPI. - 2227-9059. ; 11:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Chronic pain is characterized by high psychological comorbidity, and diagnoses are symptom-based due to a lack of clear pathophysiological factors and valid biomarkers. We investigate if inflammatory blood biomarker signatures are associated with pain intensity and psychological comorbidity in a mixed chronic pain population. Eighty-one patients (72% women) with chronic pain (>6 months) were included. Patient reported outcomes were collected, and blood was analyzed with the Proseek Multiplex Olink Inflammation Panel (Bioscience Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden), resulting in 77 inflammatory markers included for multivariate data analysis. Three subgroups of chronic pain patients were identified using an unsupervised principal component analysis. No difference between the subgroups was seen in pain intensity, but differences were seen in mental health and inflammatory profiles. Ten inflammatory proteins were significantly associated with anxiety and depression (using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9): STAMBP, SIRT2, AXIN1, CASP-8, ADA, IL-7, CD40, CXCL1, CXCL5, and CD244. No markers were related to pain intensity. Fifteen proteins could differentiate between patients with moderate/high (GAD-7/PHQ-9 > 10) or mild/no (GAD-7/PHQ-9 < 10) psychological comorbidity. This study further contributes to the increasing knowledge of the importance of inflammation in chronic pain conditions and indicates that specific inflammatory proteins may be related to psychological comorbidity.
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