Differences in telomere length between patients with bipolar disorder and controls are influenced by lithium treatment

Pisanu, Claudia;Congiu, Donatella;Manchia, Mirko;Caria, Paola;Cocco, Cristina;Dettori, Tinuccia;Frau, Daniela Virginia;Manca, Elias;Meloni, Anna;Nieddu, Mariella;Noli, Barbara;Pinna, Federica;Robledo, Renato;Sogos, Valeria;Ferri, Gian Luca;Carpiniello, Bernardo;Vanni, Roberta;Bocchetta, Alberto;Severino, Giovanni;Ardau, Raffaella;Chillotti, Caterina;Zompo, Maria Del;Squassina, Alessio

2020-01-01

---

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.