ArticlePloS one2010
Childhood adversities are associated with shorter telomere length at adult age both in individuals with an anxiety disorder and controls.
Article in PloS one, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 132 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
132 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Adverse Childhood Events and Health Biomarkers: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in public health · 2021Pooled it
- Adverse Childhood Experiences and Telomere Length a Look Into the Heterogeneity of Findings-A Narrative Review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- Body mass index is negatively associated with telomere length: a collaborative cross-sectional meta-analysis of 87 observational studies.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2018Pooled it
- Early life adversity and telomere length: a meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2018Pooled it
- The Association Between Psychiatric Disorders and Telomere Length: A Meta-Analysis Involving 14,827 Persons.Psychosomatic medicine · 2016Pooled it
- Perceived stress and telomere length: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and methodologic considerations for advancing the field.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2016Pooled it
- Early Life Epidemiology of Alzheimer's Disease--A Critical Review.Neuroepidemiology · 2015Pooled it
- Is socioeconomic status associated with biological aging as measured by telomere length?Epidemiologic reviews · 2013Pooled it
- Telomere Length Change in a Multidomain Lifestyle Intervention to Prevent Cognitive Decline: A Randomized Clinical Trial.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2021Trial
- Improvement in indices of cellular protection after psychological treatment for social anxiety disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2019Trial
- The effect of vitamin BTrials · 2017Trial
- Baseline Telomere Length and Effects of a Multidomain Lifestyle Intervention on Cognition: The FINGER Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2017Trial
- Accelerated telomere shortening: Tracking the lasting impact of early institutional care at the cellular level.Psychiatry research · 2016Trial
- Influence of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on telomerase activity in women with breast cancer (BC).Biological research for nursing · 2014Trial
- Resting leukocyte telomerase activity is elevated in major depression and predicts treatment response.Molecular psychiatry · 2012Trial
- Predicting cardiovascular morbidity and mortality with SCORE2 (OP) and Framingham risk estimates in combination with indicators of biological ageing.Age and ageing · 2025Article
- A novel carnivorous diet reduces brain telomere length.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Cumulative Stress Across the Life Course and Biological Aging in Adulthood.Psychosomatic medicine · 2024Article
- Inflammation in the pathogenesis of depression: a disorder of neuroimmune origin.Neuronal signaling · 2023Review
- Emotional neglect and parents' adverse childhood events.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2023Article
72 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Accelerated leukocyte telomere shortening has been previously associated to self-perceived stress and psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and mood disorders. We set out to investigate whether telomere length is affected in patients with anxiety disorders in which stress is a known risk factor. We also studied the effects of childhood and recent psychological distress on telomere length. We utilized samples from the nationally representative population-based Health 2000 Survey that was carried out between 2000-2001 in Finland to assess major public health problems and their determinants. We measured the relative telomere length of the peripheral blood cells by quantitative real-time PCR from 321 individuals with DSM-IV anxiety disorder or subthreshold diagnosis and 653 matched controls aged 30-87 years, who all had undergone the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. While telomere length did not differ significantly between cases and controls in the entire cohort, the older half of the anxiety disorder patients (48-87 years) exhibited significantly shorter telomeres than healthy controls of the same age (P = 0.013). Interestingly, shorter telomere length was also associated with a greater number of reported childhood adverse life events, among both the anxiety disorder cases and controls (P = 0.005). Childhood chronic or serious illness was the most significantly associated single event affecting telomere length at the adult age (P = 0.004). Self-reported current psychological distress did not affect telomere length. Our results suggest that childhood stress might lead to accelerated telomere shortening seen at the adult age. This finding has potentially important implications supporting the view that childhood adversities might have a considerable impact on well being later in life.
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