World Health Organization (WHO) says that depression is one of the most common illnesses across the globe, affecting about 5.7 per cent of adults over the age of 60 years. And now, a new study by the University of Connecticut’s (UConn) Centre on Ageing researchers has revealed that older people with depression are actually ageing faster than their contemporaries. The research that was reported last week stated that such people exhibit “poor physical and brain health”. In case you are wondering, about 426 older people with depression were taken into cognizance, to make this study reach its outcome. The report quoted the author of the study and geriatric psychiatrist of UConn School of Medicine, Breno Diniz as saying, “These patients show evidence of accelerated biological ageing, and poor physical and brain health,” which are the main drivers of this association.
Therefore, the 426 people were incorporated from several other institutions by Breno and his colleagues. Basically, Breno and his team measured the levels of proteins associated with ageing in each person’s blood. When a cell gets old, it begins to function differently, less efficiently, than a “young” cell. It produces proteins that advance inflammation or other unhealthy conditions. And these proteins can be measured in the blood. The level of these proteins was compared by the researchers with measures of the participants’ medical problems, physical health, brain function, and the severity of their depression.
Surprisingly, it turned out that while the severity of an individual’s depression seemed unrelated to their level of accelerated ageing, it was discovered that accelerated ageing was associated with deteriorated cardiovascular health overall. The report continued that high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and multiple medical problems were likely to be found in individuals exhibiting higher levels of ageing-associated proteins. Not only this but accelerated ageing was also discovered to be connected with worse performance on tests of brain health like working memory and other cognitive skills.
Breno added that “those two findings open up opportunities for preventive strategies” to lessen the disability linked with major depression among older adults. Further, the finding also helps in preventing “their acceleration of biological ageing.”
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