167. Inflammation and depression in pregnant adolescents with asthma

Abstract

The risk of developing depression is doubled for adolescents with asthma (Katon, 2006). Little is known about the magnitude of this risk during pregnancy, a period during which depression is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality (Mathers and Longcar, 2006). It also is not well understood why depressive asthma and depression frequently co-occur, though converging evidence indicates that inflammation may play a role in both (Ngoc, 2005; Schiepers, 2005). Specifically, elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) have been associated with depression (Wium-Andersen, 2013), and also used as a marker of inflammation in asthma (Takemura, 2006). In this study, we explore whether asthma is associated with depression risk during pregnancy, and if inflammation, as assessed by CRP, mediates this association. Pregnant adolescents ( n = 183) self-reported asthma status, completed the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale, and provided plasma samples for CRP assays. Results from a series of logistic regressions suggest that having asthma is associated with a nearly 4–fold increased risk for meeting criteria for depression (OR = 3.55, p = 0.006, 95%CI = [1.43, 8.84]), even after controlling for pre-pregnancy BMI, reported recent yeast and urinary tract infections, and asthma medication use. CRP did not mediate this association, perhaps due to the altered immune functioning of pregnancy. Future studies can enhance this research by considering a broader range of inflammatory biomarkers.