Older adults with depression experience accelerated biological aging and worsening physical and brain health, according to a study from the University University Center on Aging. This finding opens up opportunities for preventive strategies and targeted treatments to reduce disability and slow aging in this population.
Researchers have found that seniors who suffer from depression age faster than other adults.
Researchers at the University of Connecticut Center for Aging found that older people with depression age faster than other people. This accelerated biological aging is associated with worsening physical and brain health, but the severity of depression per se appears to be irrelevant. Accelerated aging is associated with worsening cardiovascular health, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, multiple medical problems, and cognitive decline. The findings of this study open up opportunities for preventive strategies to reduce depression-related disability and slow down biological aging in older adults. Researchers are now investigating treatments that reduce senescent cells, as well as individualized treatments based on specific patterns of senescence-associated proteins.
Researchers at the University of Connecticut Center on Aging report that seniors with depression are actually aging faster than other seniors.
“These patients show evidence of accelerated biological aging and deteriorating physical and brain health,” said a major factor in this association, said the University of California School of Medicine’s Geriatrics. Breno Dinis, a psychiatrist and author of the recently published study, said:journal natural mental health.
Dinis and colleagues at several other institutions studied 426 people with late-life depression. They measured the levels of aging-associated proteins in each person’s blood. As cells age, they begin to perform different functions than “young” cells and become less efficient. Proteins that often promote inflammation and other unhealthy conditions are produced and can be measured in the blood. Dinis and others compared the levels of these proteins to measures of participants’ physical health, medical problems, brain function, and the severity of depression.
Surprisingly, the severity of a person’s depression appeared to be independent of the level of accelerated aging. However, they found that accelerated aging was associated with worsening overall cardiovascular health. People with high levels of age-related protein are more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and multiple medical problems. Accelerated aging was also associated with lower performance on brain health tests such as working memory and other cognitive skills.
“These two findings open up opportunities for preventive strategies to reduce disability associated with major depression in older adults and prevent accelerated biological aging,” said Diniz of the UConn Center on Aging. increase.
Researchers are now investigating whether treatments that reduce the number of aged “senescent” cells in a person’s body can ameliorate late-life depression. They are also investigating specific sources and patterns of aging-associated proteins to see if this could lead to personalized treatments in the future.
References: “Major Depression, Physical Health, Abnormal Molecular Aging Markers” Johanna Seitz-Holland, Benoit H. Mulsant, Charles F. Reynolds III, Daniel M. Blumberger, Jordan F. Karp, Meryl A. Butters, Ana By Paula Mendes Silva, Erica L. Vieira, George Tseng, Eric J. Lenze, Breno S. Diniz, 22 March 2023, Nature Mental Health.
DOI: 10.1038/s44220-023-00033-z
Funding: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
