Issue 1/2 Vol. 36 1994

Complaints and peripherally measurable cytokines in acute viral hepatitis

ROSE, M. St., LEYENDECKER, B., JÖRRES, A., ZIEGLER, A. and KLAPP, B. F.

Although viral hepatitis is one of the most common infectious diseases world-wide, two remarkable phenomena remain to be explained. Why on the one hand, patients develop a characteristic dysphoric mood and on the other hand, what causes the extremely differing course of illness, rangig from fulminant, even lethal, to chronically aggressive or persistent hepatitis.

Since we know today that the immune system's functioning eliminates the hepatitis virus and is therefore nearly exclusively responsible for the progress of the disease (Thomas 90), research increasingly concentrates on finding relevant markers for this so-called "immunocompetence". Thus, alpha-interferon (alpha-IFN) and interleukin 2 (IL-2) are thought to play a major role in pathogenesis (Peters et al. 91, Foster & Thomas 93). However, microbiological/immunological analyses alone have not been able to propuce satisfactory explanations for the variations of the course of the illness. Instead, taking in mind the descriptions of various psychological alterations (v. Weizsäcker 51) in hepatitis and the results of psycho-immunology, we seem to be confronted with an illness determined by multiple factors. We believe that viral hepatitis is particularly suitable for biopsychological analysis, because patients are not medicated and they are subject to relatively uniform environmental conditions due to being isolated in single rooms. Thus, the patient's immunocompetence is directly reflected in the course of the disease and is accessible to analysis of possible biological as well as psycho-social influences.

This study has two objectives:

1. (Afferent hypothesis: soma -> psyche) To evaluate the significance of somato-immunological processes for the subjective state of health,

2. (Efferent hypothesis: psyche -> soma) To analyse the relevance of psychological parameters for immunocompetence and the course of the disease.

Keywords: interleukin 2, interferon, immunocompetence, immune system, hepatitis, viral hepatitis, cytokines

Short Title: Rose, M. St. et al. (1994) PsyBeit 1-2:213

[Pabst Science Publishers] [Psychologische Beiträge] [Table of Contents] [Search] [Order]