Psychometric liability to psychosis and childhood adversities are associated with shorter telomere length: A study on schizophrenia patients, unaffected siblings, and non-clinical controls

Publication date: Available online 8 February 2019Source: Journal of Psychiatric ResearchAuthor(s): Burcu Çevik, Öykü Mançe-Çalışır, Eşref Cem Atbaşoğlu, Meram Can Saka, Köksal Alptekin, Alp Üçok, Burcu Sırmatel, Sinan Gülöksüz, Ajlan Tükün, Jim van Os, Güvem Gümüş-AkayAbstractCompared to the general population, individuals diagnosed with Schizophrenia (SCZ) experience a higher frequency and an earlier onset of chronic medical disorders, resulting in a reduction in life expectancy by an average of 15–25 years. Recently, it has been hypothesized that SCZ is a syndrome of accelerated aging. Childhood adversity was also associated with the pathogenesis and course of SCZ. Our hypothesis was that both SCZ patients and their unaffected siblings would have shorter TL compared to of non-clinical controls. Our additional goals were to determine (1) whether shorter TL correlates with intermediate phenotypes of SCZ (i.e. Psychosis-like symptoms and schizotypal traits); and (2) whether childhood adversities have a moderating role in TL shortening among SCZ and their unaffected siblings. To this end, SCZ patients (n = 100), their unaffected siblings (n = 100) and non-clinical controls (n = 100) were enrolled. The main variables were TL, measured by aTL-qPCR; psychotic-like and schizotypal symptoms, assessed by The Community Assessment of Psychic Experience (CAPE) and the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R), respectively; and childhood ...
Source: Journal of Psychiatric Research - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research