Suppression, but not reappraisal, is associated with inflammation in trauma-exposed veterans

Background: Emotion dysregulation can elicit inflammatory activity. The current study examined whether specific maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation strategies were associated with inflammatory markers in trauma-exposed veterans, above and beyond PTSD. Methods: In a cohort study, 606 participants exposed to a Criterion A trauma and recruited from Veteran Health Administration facilities completed fasting blood draws, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale-IV. Inflammation was assessed with high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), white blood cell count (WBC), and fibrinogen levels. An inflammation index was created by summing standardized log-transformed levels of the three biomarkers. Our primary linear regression models were adjusted for sex, age, race, education, income, creatinine, and PTSD. Results: Suppression, but not cognitive reappraisal, was significantly associated with higher levels of the inflammatory index (beta = 0.14, p = 0.001). Parallel analyses for the individual inflammatory markers also showed suppression, but not reappraisal, was significantly associated with higher hsCRP (beta = 0.11, p = 0.01), WBC (beta = 0.11, p = 0.01), and fibrinogen (beta = 0.10, p = 0.02). Conclusions: Emotional suppression is related to elevated systemic inflammation independent of PTSD. Cognitive reappraisal is unrelated to inflammation. Findings suggest over-utilization of maladaptive, rather than underutilization of adaptive, emotion regulation strategies may be associated with systemic inflammation in trauma-exposed veterans.