Risk of accelerated aging seen in PTSD patients with childhood
trauma (Medical Xpress) -- Adults with post-traumatic stress
disorder and a history of childhood trauma had significantly
shorter telomere length than those with PTSD but without
childhood trauma, in a study by researchers at the San Francisco
VA Medical Center and the University of California, San
Francisco. Telomeres are DNA-protein complexes that cap the ends
of chromosomes and protect them from damage and mutations. Short
telomere length is associated with an increased risk of cancer,
cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative
diseases, as well as early death. For the study, published in
the online Articles in Press section of Biological Psychiatry,
the authors collected DNA samples from 43 adults with PTSD and
47 matched participants without PTSD. Initial analysis showed
that on average, the subjects with PTSD had shorter telomere
length than those without. This was striking to us, because the
subjects were relatively young,