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Childhood Adversities Are Associated with Shorter Telomere Length at Adult Age both in Individuals with an Anxiety Disorder and Controls
Open accessAbstract
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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“However, LTL was significantly shorter among the older anxiety disorder subjects (48–87 years of age) compared to controls, and the authors suggested that more prolonged exposure to anxiety disorder-related stress might be needed for accelerated telomere shortening to be detected (Kananen et al., 2010).”
From Psychiatric disorders and leukocyte telomere length: Underlying mechanisms linking mental illness with cellular aging (2015) · cites this paper as Kananen et al., 2010
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“However, LTL was significantly shorter among the older anxiety disorder subjects (48–87 years of age) compared to controls, and the authors suggested that more prolonged exposure to anxiety disorder-related stress might be needed for accelerated telomere shortening to be detected (Kananen et al., 2010).”
From Psychiatric disorders and leukocyte telomere length: Underlying mechanisms linking mental illness with cellular aging (2015) · cites this paper as Kananen et al., 2010
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“Kananen et al. (2010), found no overall significant difference in LTL between a mixed group of anxiety disorder subjects (panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, agoraphobia and phobia not otherwise specified, plus cases of “sub-threshold” anxiety disorders not meeting DSM-IV criteria for anxiety disorder diagnosis) and controls.”
From Psychiatric disorders and leukocyte telomere length: Underlying mechanisms linking mental illness with cellular aging (2015) · cites this paper as Kananen et al. (2010)
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kananen, L., Surakka, I., Pirkola, S., Suvisaari, J., Lönnqvist, J., Peltonen, L., Ripatti, S., & Hovatta, I.
- Affiliations
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Helsinki University Hospital (FI)
- Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (FI)
- Broad Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hovatta, Iiris
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2010-05-25
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- e10826
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2876034
- OpenAlex
- W1986488389
- Cited by
- 270
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 32 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 18.42
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja (submittedVersion)
- STM:n Hallinnonalan avoin julkaisuarkisto (Julkari) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Academy of Finland
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Keywords
- telomere length, childhood adversity, anxiety disorders, children with chronic illness, psychological distress, stress, aging, Health 2000 Survey
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aging, Anxiety Disorders, Child, Child Abuse, Humans, Life Change Events, Socioeconomic Factors, Stress, Psychological, Case-Control Studies, Telomere
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