DNA from people who suffer from major depression is biologically older than that of healthy people by on average 8 months, suggesting that they are biologically older than their corresponding calendar age. This effect was greater in people who have had childhood trauma, such as violence, neglect or sexual abuse, who show a biological age around a year older than their actual age. This work was presented at the ECNP conference in Barcelona.
There is increasing evidence that serious depression and trauma is associated with shorter life-spans. Now an international team of researchers has shown that major depression causes measurable changes in the in the DNA of sufferers, giving values which correspond to those of older people.
Working with 811 depressed patients and 319 control subjects from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, the team studied how their DNA extracted from blood samples was changed with age. The genetic material DNA is often processed in the body by methylation, which is when a methyl group (CH3) is added to the DNA. DNA methylation is a way the body allows gene function to be modified without changing the DNA sequence itself.
[For more on this study by European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, go to https://medicalxpress.com/news...buse-depression.html]
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