Symptom Severity from Posttraumatic Stress is Not Correlated to C-reactive Protein Level or Altered by Ketone Salt Supplementation

Abstract

This study aimed to determine if: 1) C-reactive protein (CRP) level correlated with PTSD symptom severity as measured by PTSD Checklist-5 (PCL-5), and 2) ketone supplement reduced PTSD symptoms. Twenty participants with PTSD were randomly assigned to a ketone supplementation or placebo group and evaluated for 6-weeks for PTSD symptom severity and CRP levels. The Spearman Rank correlation between PCL-5 and CRP was positive, but not statistically significant. Mixed models on the ranks of the data were used to examine the difference in PCL-5 and CRP between ketone and control groups over time. Median PCL-5 at the pre-test was higher than at the post-test in the ketone group but not in the control. The reduction of PCL-5 medians between ketone and control groups at the post-test was not different. The median pre-test CRP was not different from than post-test in the ketone group or control group. This pilot study did not find a correlation between CRP levels and PTSD symptom severity but was limited by a lack of CRP data collection due to the loss of follow-up. PTSD symptom severity was not altered by 6 weeks of chronic ketone salt supplementation compared to the control group but should be examined in a larger sample size for further verification.