Major depressive disorder and accelerated cellular aging: results from a large psychiatric cohort study

• Published in: Molecular psychiatry Vol. 19; no. 8; pp. 895 - 901
• Main Authors: Verhoeven, J E, Révész, D, Epel, E S, Lin, J, Wolkowitz, O M, Penninx, B W J H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.08.2014; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/337/103/560; 631/443/7; 692/699/476/1414; Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aging; Alcohol use; Analysis; Anxiety disorders; Behavioral Sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Psychology; Bipolar disorder; Cardiovascular disease; Case-Control Studies; Cell division; Cells; Cellular Senescence - genetics; Cohort analysis; Cohort Studies; Copy number; Coronary artery disease; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major - genetics; Depressive Disorder, Major - pathology; Development and progression; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Female; Heart diseases; Humans; Major depressive disorder; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental depression; Mental health; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Mood disorders; Mortality; Neurosciences; Obesity; original-article; Patients; Pharmacotherapy; Physiological aspects; Polymerase chain reaction; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Risk factors; Severity of Illness Index; Telomerase; Telomere Shortening; Telomeres; Yeast; Young Adult; United States > US; Netherlands; San Francisco California; telomere shortening; depression; cell aging; mood disorders; Mood disorder; Senescence; Cohort study; Depression; Telomere
• DOI: 10.1038/mp.2013.151
• ISSN: 1359-4184; 1476-5578

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have an increased onset risk of aging-related somatic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer. This suggests mechanisms of accelerated biological aging among the depressed, which can be indicated by a shorter length of telomeres. We examine whether MDD is associated with accelerated biological aging, and whether depression characteristics such as severity, duration, and psychoactive medication do further impact on biological aging. Data are from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, including 1095 current MDD patients, 802 remitted MDD patients and 510 control subjects. Telomere length (TL) was assessed as the telomere sequence copy number (T) compared to a single-copy gene copy number (S) using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. This resulted in a T/S ratio and was converted to base pairs (bp). MDD diagnosis and MDD characteristics were determined by self-report questionnaires and structured psychiatric interviews. Compared with control subjects (mean bp=5541), sociodemographic-adjusted TL was shorter among remitted MDD patients (mean bp=5459; P =0.014) and current MDD patients (mean bp=5461; P =0.012). Adjustment for health and lifestyle variables did not reduce the associations. Within the current MDD patients, separate analyses showed that both higher depression severity ( P <0.01) and longer symptom duration in the past 4 years ( P =0.01) were associated with shorter TL. Our results demonstrate that depressed patients show accelerated cellular aging according to a ‘dose–response’ gradient: those with the most severe and chronic MDD showed the shortest TL. We also confirmed the imprint of past exposure to depression, as those with remitted MDD had shorter TL than controls.