Short Telomeres, More Depressions, and Risk of the Common Cold
Too many depressions in unipolar and bipolar disorder are associated with multiple risks. These include social and employment losses, dysfunction and disability, cognitive dysfunction, reduction in hippocampal volume (in unipolar depression), increases in medical comorbidity, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and endocrine abnormalities (see the 2012 article by this author Post et al. in the Journal of Psychiatric Research).
To this list we can now add short telomeres. Telomeres sit at the end of DNA strands and shorten with each cell replication. A person’s percentage of short telomeres increases with aging. The number of depressions a patient with bipolar II disorder has had is also associated with a higher percentage of short telomeres. The magnitude of the difference in telomeres is equivalent to 10 years of aging.
An article by Cohen et al. published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2013 suggests that short telomeres can even be linked to increased vulnerability to viral infections causing the common cold. Depression has also been linked to various immune deficiencies. Whether direct alteration in immune function is responsible or whether this is mediated via telomere length remains to be determined.
Editor’s Note: The moral of this story is that patients should stay on effective treatment long-term to prevent depression in the recurrent affective disorders. This means antidepressants for unipolar depression, and mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics for bipolar depression. Prevent depressions and protect your brain and your telomeres (and as a bonus, you may not get so many colds).
