ArticleDepression and anxiety2018
Prospective association of depression and phobic anxiety with changes in telomere lengths over 11 years.
Article in Depression and anxiety, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring the association between depression and telomere length: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Mediating role of accelerated aging in the association between depression and mortality risk: findings from NHANES.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2024Article
- Telomere Length Associations With Clinical Diagnosis, Age, and Polygenic Risk Scores for Anxiety Disorder, Depression, and Bipolar Disorder.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2023Article
- Depression, religiosity, and telomere length in the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH).International journal of mental health and addiction · 2022Article
- Telomere length and epigenetic age acceleration in adolescents with anxiety disorders.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Depressive Symptoms Predict Change in Telomere Length and Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number Across Adolescence.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2020Article
- Leukocyte Telomere Length Is Unrelated to Cognitive Performance Among Non-Demented and Demented Persons: An Examination of Long Life Family Study Participants.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2020Article
- Accelerated aging in serious mental disorders.Current opinion in psychiatry · 2019Review
- The relation of telomere length at midlife to subsequent 20-year depression trajectories among women.Depression and anxiety · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough depression and anxiety have been associated with shorter telomeres in cross-sectional studies, the data regarding the prospective relations of depression and anxiety to accelerated telomere length shortening are limited and findings are mixed. We prospectively examined relations of baseline depression and phobic anxiety to subsequent 11-year change in relative leukocyte telomere lengths (LTLs).
methodsWe selected 1,250 women from a subcohort of the Nurses' Health Study who provided blood specimens at both blood collections (1989-1990 and 2000-2001). Depression was defined by self-reported regular antidepressant use or presence of severe depressive symptoms; anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Crown-Crisp Experiential Index. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay, LTLs were measured as the copy number ratio of telomere repeat to a single control gene. Changes in LTLs were defined in three ways: absolute change, symmetrized percent change, and decile shift.
resultsOverall, there were no statistically significant associations of depression or phobic anxiety to subsequent 11-year LTL shortening, despite a point estimates in the direction of greater telomere shortening among participants with versus without depression, across all three metrics of telomere change. The strongest predictor of LTL change was baseline telomere length, and regression-to-the-mean was observed.
conclusionBaseline depression and phobic anxiety were not significantly associated with 11-year attrition in LTLs among 1,250 mid-life and older women. However, a suggestion of depression and greater subsequent LTL attrition, while not statistically significant, may warrant further inquiry, particularly in prospective studies with larger sample sizes and broader windows of the lifespan.
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Registered trials
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