Depression: A case of the blues or biological cause

Depression affects everyone at some point in their lives, with varying degrees of serverity and duration. However chronic depression may be explained when looking at the genetics and the impacts it has on the function of cells. A recent study done by UCSF (University of California San Fransico) showed that there is a relationship between chronic depression and the accelerated aging of cells, more specifically the length of the telemeres in immune cells taken from blood.  In these cells the length of the telemeres are shorter than what is normal. The study showed that depressed indivduals don't necessarly have short telemeres, in fact there was little difference in the length of the telemeres between the depressed group and the non-depressed group. However, individuals with untreated chronic depression for at least 9 years had much shorter telemeres. As it is said in the literature "The degree of shortening in this subset of the depressed group corresponded to about seven years of  accelerated cell aging."

 *Human Chromosomes (Grey) with the Telomeres at the end (White)

     Other problems associated with the shortening of telomeres include inflammation and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is the body's inability to neutralize free-radicals with antioxidants and can lead to cell death,  promote disease and increase the risk of cancer. On the otherhand, lifestyle changes such as a balanced diet and regular exercise actually is linked to longer length telomeres. Dr. Owen Wolkowitz, who is a professor of psychiatry at UCSF stated,"We speculate that telomerase may provide a biological marker for antidepressant responses. Once we better understand these systems, we will be in a stronger position to treat depression and possibly prevent some of its associated physical illnesses."