Table 2.

Summary statistics for serum concentrations of β-endorphin and proinflammatory markers at baseline, week 8 and the change at week 8 from baseline

	Sham		Real		P value
	Median	Range	Median	Range
β-endorphin (ng/mL)	N=23		N=24
Baseline	0.24	0.20~1.91	0.25	0.20~0.35
Week 8	0.24	0.20~1.62	0.24	0.21~0.31
Week 8 change	−0.01	−0.29~0.03	0	−0.11~0.03	0.341
IFN-γ (pg/mL)	N=21		N=17
Baseline	3.19	1.45~6.47	2.92	0.29~25.99
8 weeks	3.57	1.09~4.42	3.00	0.82~47.15
Week 8 change	−0.08	−3.42~2.66	−0.04	−23.44~45.39	0.653
IL-10 (pg/mL)
Baseline	1.30	0.19~24.66	0.96	0.03~2.17
Week 8	1.19	0.24~24.94	0.95	0.15~3.14
Week 8 change	−0.02	−4.25~1.05	−0.01	−0.62~1.75	0.942
IL-12 (pg/mL)
Baseline	2.78	0.94~28.99	2.55	0.51~6.21
Week 8	3.94	0.99~23.94	2.64	0.46~9.56
Week 8 change	0.81	−5.05~6.36	0.10	−0.43~4.37	0.128
IL-1 (pg/mL)
Baseline	0.73	0.21~4.80	0.82	0.16~2.36
Week 8	0.61	0.13~4.27	0.82	0.14~2.19
Week 8 change	−0.16	−0.57~1.46	−0.08	−1.92~1.50	0.611
IL-6 (pg/mL)
Baseline	1.82	0.38~20.48	1.26	0.13~2.66
Week 8	1.39	0.45~6.07	1.62	0.66~11.17
Week 8 change	0.10	−19.45~1.73	0.19	−1.04~9.16	0.407
IL-8 (pg/mL)
Baseline	8.79	3.83~48.47	8.64	3.21~113.18
Week 8	8.71	4.70~13.46	7.57	3.24~375.90
Week 8 change	0.68	−38.08~4.23	0.01	−107.24~356.14	0.839
TNFα (pg/mL)
Baseline	5.31	2.88~9.20	4.77	0.01~11.19
Week 8	5.29	3.15~10.01	4.19	1.91~8.83
Week 8 change	0.23	−0.81~3.68	−0.02	−7.29~4.26	0.095
IL-17 (pg/mL)
Baseline*	10.39	5.20~32.45	8.03	5.75~12.50
Week 8	8.91	4.92~14.02	7.74	4.37~11.28
Week 8 change	−1.53	−20.57~0.89	−1.14	−4.76~0.87	0.275

^*p=0.012 for baseline comparison between the two groups.

For cytokine data analysis, 4 patients were excluded due to ongoing infection or inflammation. Among the remaining 43 patients, 5 were missing week 8 measurements, so the data presented here are for 38 patients.

The last column of p values compare change of the values at week 8 from baseline between the two groups, by Wilcoxon rank sum tests.