ArticleDepression and anxiety2017
Posttraumatic stress disorder and accelerated aging: PTSD and leukocyte telomere length in a sample of civilian women.
Article in Depression and anxiety, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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
30 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- PTSD and epigenetic aging: a longitudinal meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Psychological distress and metabolomic markers: A systematic review of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and subclinical distress.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Traumatic stress and accelerated DNA methylation age: A meta-analysis.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2018Pooled it
- Racial Discrimination and PTSD Symptoms Among Black Women: The Mediating Roles of Anxiety and Depression.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Article
- Association between telomere length and psychiatric disorders: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Lifetime trauma exposure and accelerated epigenetic aging among midlife women.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2025Article
- Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Modulation of Oxidative Stressors to Enhance Healthspan and Radical Longevity.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- Post-traumatic stress disorder in older adults: a global collaboration on setting the future research agenda.The lancet. Healthy longevity · 2025Review
- Telomere Dynamics in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Critical Synthesis.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Parental Preconception Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Maternal Prenatal Inflammation Prospectively Predict Shorter Telomere Length in Children.Psychosomatic medicine · 2024Article
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, and Accelerated Aging: Leukocyte Telomere Length in the Nurses' Health Study II.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Article
- Article
- Adverse and traumatic exposures, posttraumatic stress disorder, telomere length, and hair cortisol - Exploring associations in a high-risk sample of young adult residential care leavers.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Article
- Mechanisms by which adverse childhood experiences, other traumas and PTSD influence the health and well-being of individuals with eating disorders throughout the life span.Journal of eating disorders · 2022Review
- Prevalence, Severity and Burden of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Black Men and Women Across the Adult Life span.Journal of aging and health · 2022Article
- Cancer-related accelerated ageing and biobehavioural modifiers: a framework for research and clinical care.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2022Review
- Shorter Telomeres Related to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Re-experiencing Symptoms in Sexually Assaulted Civilian Women.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Oxidative Dysregulation in Early Life Stress and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Comprehensive Review.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Post-traumatic stress disorder and its association with stroke and stroke risk factors: A literature review.Neurobiology of stress · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundStudies in male combat veterans have suggested posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with shorter telomere length (TL). We examined the cross-sectional association of PTSD with TL in women exposed to traumas common in civilian life.
methodsData are from a substudy of the Nurses' Health Study II (N = 116). PTSD and subclinical PTSD were assessed in trauma-exposed women using diagnostic interviews. An array of health behaviors and conditions were assessed. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes (collected 1996-1999). Telomere repeat copy number to single gene copy number (T/S) was determined by quantitative real-time PCR telomere assay. We used linear regression models to assess associations and examine whether a range of important health behaviors (e.g., cigarette smoking) and medical conditions (e.g., hypertension) previously associated with TL might explain a PTSD-TL association. We further examined whether type of trauma exposure (e.g., interpersonal violence) was associated with TL and whether trauma type might explain a PTSD-TL association.
resultsRelative to not having PTSD, women with a PTSD diagnosis had shorter log-transformed TL (β = -.112, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.196, -0.028). Adjustment for health behaviors and medical conditions did not attenuate this association. Trauma type was not associated with TL and did not account for the association of PTSD with TL.
conclusionsOur results add to growing evidence that PTSD may be associated with more rapid cellular aging as measured by telomere erosion. Moreover, the association could not be explained by health behaviors and medical conditions assessed in this study, nor by type of trauma exposure.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.