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Pathway may explain cellular aging in patients with anxiety disorders

Patients with anxiety disorders may have shorter leukocyte telomeres, a known marker for conditions such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, cognitive decline and earlier mortality, according to data published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

“This large cohort study provides suggestive evidence that patients with anxiety disorders have shorter telomere length compared with healthy controls, suggesting a pathway of accelerated cellular aging within the most common anxiety disorders,” researchers wrote. “This might in turn explain the increased somatic health problems found in this population.”

Data were collected from the baseline assessment of the ongoing Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety.

Patients with current anxiety disorder (n = 1,283), remitted anxiety disorder (n = 459) and healthy controls (n = 582) were administered psychiatric interviews, self-report questionnaires and telomere sequence testing, according to data.

Results indicate patients in the anxiety group had significantly shorter leukocyte telomere length (LTL) compared with the control group (P = .01). These findings were also significant in the remitted anxiety group (P = .03) after adjusting for sociodemographics, as well as health and lifestyle covariates.

LTL was also significantly shorter among patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia (P = .03), social phobia (P = .04), and generalized anxiety disorder (P = .002), compared with the control group.

“Lifestyle interventions such as increased physical activity have been shown to have a favorable impact on cellular aging in a healthy population,” the researchers concluded. – by Samantha Costa

Disclosure: Epel is a cofounder of Telomere Diagnostics, Inc. All other researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.