Citation

Xavier G, Spindola LM, Ota VK, Carvalho CM, Maurya PK, Tempaku PF, Moretti PN, Mazotti DR, Sato JR, Brietzke E, Miguel EC, Grassi-Oliveira R, Mari J, Bressan RA, Gadelha A, Pan PM, Belangero SI. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2018; 107: 104-109.

Affiliation

Genetics Division of Department of Morphology and Genetics of Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo (UNIFESP), Brazil; LiNC - Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Clinical Neurosciences of UNIFESP, Brazil; Department of Psychiatry of UNIFESP, Brazil. Electronic address: sinbelangero@gmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.10.012

PMID

30384090

Abstract

Child maltreatment (CM) is a global issue with serious lifelong consequences. In fact, maltreatment during childhood might be an important risk factor for the development of psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, previous studies showed a strong relationship between telomere length (TL) and early life stress. Considering that only a few studies have evaluated this relationship in children and that even fewer considered the sex as a possible moderator, we investigated whether TL in the blood of both children and adolescents was associated with psychopathology and with a history of CM, and whether these associations were moderated by the sex. In this cross-sectional study, 561 individuals (ranging between 6 and 14 years of age) from a large prospective community school-based study, i.e., the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort (HRC), were evaluated. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) score was used to assess psychopathology, whereas a latent variable encompassing some questions about history of adverse environment and trauma was employed to determine the CM history. TL was measured in blood cells using a multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Additionally, TL was inserted in two moderation models, in which the CBCL score/CM, TL and sex were the independent variables, the outcome, and the moderator variable, respectively. Although an association between psychiatric symptoms and TL was not observed, a relation between CM and TL moderated by the sex was seen, indicating that males with higher CM scores presented with shorter telomeres than did females. Our results suggest that child maltreatment could influence telomere length in both children and adolescents and that this effect is mediated by the sex.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescents; Child maltreatment; Children; Psychopathology; Sex moderation; Telomere length