Differences in Telomere Length Between Patients with Bipolar Disorder and Controls are Influenced by Lithium Treatment
Claudia Pisanu, Donatella Congiu, Mirko Manchia, Paola Caria, Cristina Cocco, Tinuccia Dettori, Daniela Virginia Frau, Elias Manca, Anna Meloni, Mariella Nieddu, Barbara Noli, Federica Pinna, Renato Robledo, Valeria Sogos, Gian‐Luca Ferri, Bernardo Carpiniello, Roberta Vanni, Alberto Bocchetta, Giovanni Severino, Raffaella Ardau, Caterina Chillotti, Maria Del Zompo, Alessio Squassina
Abstract
Aim: To assess the role of lithium treatment in the relationship between bipolar disorder (BD) and leukocyte telomere length (LTL). Materials & methods: We compared LTL between 131 patients with BD, with or without a history of lithium treatment, and 336 controls. We tested the association between genetically determined LTL and BD in two large genome-wide association datasets. Results: Patients with BD with a history lithium treatment showed longer LTL compared with never-treated patients (p = 0.015), and similar LTL compared with controls. Patients never treated with lithium showed shorter LTL compared with controls (p = 0.029). Mendelian randomization analysis showed no association between BD and genetically determined LTL. Conclusion: Our data support previous findings showing that long-term lithium treatment might protect against telomere shortening.