Impact of Surgical Status, Loneliness, and Disability on Interleukin 6, C-Reactive Protein, Cortisol, and Estrogen in Females with Symptomatic Type I Chiari Malformation

• Published in: Cerebellum (London, England) England), 2021-12, Vol.20 (6), p.872-886
• Main Authors: Garcia, Monica A., Li, Xuan, Allen, Philip A., Delahanty, Douglas L., Eppelheimer, Maggie S., Houston, James R., Johnson, Dawn M., Loth, Frank, Maleki, Jahangir, Vorster, Sarel, Luciano, Mark G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 17β-Estradiol; Arnold-Chiari Malformation; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain; C-Reactive Protein; Congenital defects; Cortisol; Decompression; Estrogens; Female; Hormones; Humans; Hydrocortisone; Interleukin 6; Loneliness; Neural tube defects; Neurobiology; Neurology; Neurosciences; Original Article; Patients; Saliva; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 1473-4222; 1473-4230
• DOI: 10.1007/s12311-021-01251-w

Chiari malformation type I (CMI) provides an opportunity for examining possible moderators of allostatic load. CMI patients who had ( n = 43) and had not ( n = 19) undergone decompression surgery completed questionnaires regarding pain, disability, and loneliness, and provided serum samples for IL-6, CRP, estrogen, and free estradiol assays, and saliva samples to assess diurnal cortisol curves. ANOVAs examining surgical status (decompressed versus non-decompressed), loneliness (high vs. low), and disability (high vs. low) as independent variables and biomarker variables as dependent factors found that loneliness was associated with higher levels of cortisol, F (1, 37) = 4.91, p = .04, η 2 P = .11, and lower levels of estrogen, F (1, 36) = 7.29, p = .01, η 2 P = .17, but only in decompressed patients. Results highlight the possible impact of loneliness on biological stress responses and the need to intervene to reduce loneliness in patients with symptomatic CMI.