DEPRESSION ACCELERATES AGING

Depression and bad mood can shorten the length of telomeres, known as a marker of aging body cells.

However, adequate treatment for depression can reverse these processes, according to new research.

Large-scale research has shown that telomeres are shortened in patients with mood-lowering diseases. With adequate treatment of depression and other pathologies with reduced mood, it leads to the restoration of telomere length.

“In a study conducted in the Netherlands, we were able to study telomere length in 2,300 patients with and without depression. Our results showed that patients with active depression have a shorter telomere length than patients with stopped depression, ” Josine Verhoeven from the Department of psychiatry at VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said in an interview. Continue reading →