Trial reportPsychiatry research2016
Accelerated telomere shortening: Tracking the lasting impact of early institutional care at the cellular level.
Trial report in Psychiatry research, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Biological aging in childhood and adolescence following experiences of threat and deprivation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2020Pooled it
- Telomere trajectories from early adolescence to adulthood following early institutionalization: Protective effects of foster care in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Trial
- Association of Short-term Change in Leukocyte Telomere Length With Cortical Thickness and Outcomes of Mental Training Among Healthy Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2019Trial
- Practitioner Review: Infant mental health meets cell and molecular biology - a look to the future.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early-life stress.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Early adversity alters brain architecture and increases susceptibility to mental health disorders.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2025Review
- Psychosocial Factors and Telomere Length Among Parents and Infants of Immigrant Arab American Families.Biological research for nursing · 2023Article
- A novel conceptual model of trauma-informed care for patients with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 illness (PASC).Journal of advanced nursing · 2022Article
- Integrating DNA Methylation Measures of Biological Aging into Social Determinants of Health Research.Current environmental health reports · 2022Review
- Hippocampal volume indexes neurobiological sensitivity to the effect of pollution burden on telomere length in adolescents.New directions for child and adolescent development · 2022Article
- Change of pace: How developmental tempo varies to accommodate failed provision of early needs.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Review
- What was learned from studying the effects of early institutional deprivation.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2021Review
- Telomere and Telomerase: Biological Markers of Organic Vital Force State and Homeopathic Treatment Effectiveness.Homeopathy : the journal of the Faculty of Homeopathy · 2021Article
- Telomere dynamics across the early life course: Findings from a longitudinal study in children.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- Article
- Intergenerational transmission of childhood trauma? Testing cellular aging in mothers exposed to sexual abuse and their children.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Article
- The Neurobiology of Social Distance.Trends in cognitive sciences · 2020Review
- Testing three hypotheses about effects of sensitive-insensitive parenting on telomeres.Developmental psychology · 2020Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences: Implications for Offspring Telomere Length and Psychopathology.The American journal of psychiatry · 2020Article
- Telomere Length and Psychopathology: Specificity and Direction of Effects Within the Bucharest Early Intervention Project.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Studies examining the association between early adversity and longitudinal changes in telomere length within the same individual are rare, yet are likely to provide novel insight into the subsequent lasting effects of negative early experiences. We sought to examine the association between institutional care history and telomere shortening longitudinally across middle childhood and into adolescence. Buccal DNA was collected 2-4 times, between the ages of 6 and 15 years, in 79 children enrolled in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), a longitudinal study exploring the impact of early institutional rearing on child health and development. Children with a history of early institutional care (n=50) demonstrated significantly greater telomere shortening across middle childhood and adolescence compared to never institutionalized children (n=29). Among children with a history of institutional care, randomization to high quality foster care was not associated with differential telomere attrition across development. Cross-sectional analysis of children randomized to the care as usual group indicated shorter telomere length was associated with greater percent of the child's life spent in institutional care up to age 8. These results suggest that early adverse care from severe psychosocial deprivation may be embedded at the molecular genetic level through accelerated telomere shortening.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.