Accelerated Biological Aging Correlates with Incidence of Depression and Anxiety
Researchers here report on a correlation between accelerated biological age, as measured by two very different clocks, and risk of depression and anxiety disorders. To the extent that one believes that the presentation of these disorders is made worse by negative events taking place in life, it makes sense that a worse state of physical health, as tends to accompany accelerated biological age, would tend to increase reported incidence of depression and anxiety. Otherwise, there is a growing body of evidence for mechanisms of brain aging to contribute to mood disorders, and range of data on correlations between specific aspects of brain aging and mood disorders.
In this study, we tested associations of blood-chemistry measures of biological aging with prevalent and incident depression and anxiety among a half-million midlife and older adults in the UK Biobank. The main findings were that adults with more advanced biological age were more likely to experience depression and anxiety at baseline and were at higher risk of depression/anxiety over eight years of follow-up, as compared with peers who were the same chronological age, but who were tested to be biologically younger.
The risk associated with biological age was independent of and additive to genetic risk. The risk was also independent of self-reported history of childhood adversity. This study contributes evidence from a large biobank cohort to support the hypothesis that biological aging might represent a risk factor for depression/anxiety in midlife and older adults.
There is accumulating evidence for a link between mental health problems and biological aging. However, most studies have focused on poor mental health as a risk factor for accelerated aging. The reverse process may also occur. For example, white matter hyperintensities, neuroimaging signatures of small cerebral infarcts, are associated with aging and with the risk of depression, and recently have been linked to measurements of biological aging. The same is true of low-grade systemic inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction.