THE CONVERGENCE OF GEROSCIENCE AND MENTAL HEALTH IN OLDER ADULTS

Abstract The rapid growth of the older adult population poses new challenges in public health, as older adults are more susceptible to certain neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric conditions. Understanding how the biological changes of aging influence the development of different neuropsychiatric disorders is therefore an important task. In this symposium we will discuss recent findings showing how age-related biological changes are: 1) associated with common psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression and anxiety), 2) related to development and severity of depressive symptoms, and 3) correlated with neurocognitive performance and brain reserve among older adults. Breno Satler Diniz, MD, PhD will present data showing that older adults with major depression have elevated markers of DNA damage, namely 8-hydroxy-2’-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG); higher 8-oxo-dG levels are also negatively correlated with severity of depressive symptoms in this population. Olivia I. Okereke, MD, SM will present data showing that accelerated epigenetic aging (measured via DNA methylation) is significantly correlated with worse cognitive performance and greater severity of anxiety symptoms among older adults in the VITAL-DEP study cohort. Patrick Brown, PhD will show results from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging demonstrating that greater longitudinal decreases in skeletal muscle mitochondrial function, a marker of frailty, were associated with significant increases in depressive symptoms and higher odds of developing clinically significant depressive symptoms over time. Finally, Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD will present data from the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) Study showing a significant increase in brain chronological aging among cognitively normal individuals with higher amyloid burden; further, brain aging was significantly different between diagnostic groups (i.e., early mild cognitive impairment (MCI), late MCI, and AD). The data presented in this symposium provide further evidence of how different hallmarks of biological aging may significantly relate to development of neuropsychiatric disorders in the elderly. We also demonstrate that integration of geroscience approaches in research will provide a better understanding of such conditions among older adults.