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The relation of telomere length at mid-life to subsequent 20-year depression trajectories among women
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April 08 2019
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Source: Depress Anxiety. 36(6):565-575
[PDF-746.08 KB]
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Alternative Title:Depress Anxiety
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Description:BACKGROUND
Telomeres cap and protect DNA but shorten with each somatic cell division. Aging, environmental, and lifestyle factors contribute to the speed of telomere attrition. Current evidence suggests a link between relative telomere length (RTL) and depression, but directionality of the relationship remains unclear. We prospectively examined associations between RTL and subsequent depressive symptom trajectories.
METHODS
Among 8,801 women of the Nurses’ Health Study depressive symptoms were measured every four years from 1992–2012; group-based trajectories of symptoms were identified using latent class growth-curve analysis. Multinomial logistic models were used to relate mid-life RTLs to the probabilities of group assignment to subsequent depressive symptom trajectories.
RESULTS
We identified four depressive symptom trajectory groups: minimal depressive symptoms (62%), worsening depressive symptoms (14%), improving depressive symptoms (19%), and persistent severe depressive symptoms (5%). Longer mid-life RTLs were related to significantly lower odds of being in the worsening symptoms trajectory versus minimal trajectory but not to other trajectories. Compared to being in the minimal symptoms group, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio of being in the worsening depressive symptoms group was 0.78 (95% CI (confidence interval): 0.62–0.97, p=0.02), for every standard deviation increase in baseline RTL.
CONCLUSIONS
In this large prospective study of generally healthy women, longer telomeres at mid-life were associated with significantly lower risk of a subsequent trajectory of worsening mood symptoms over 20 years. The results raise the possibility of telomere shortening as a novel contributing factor to late-life depression.
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Pubmed ID:30958913
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC6548605
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