Associations between depression and anxiety symptoms and retinal vessel caliber in adolescents and young adults.
OBJECTIVE
Previous longitudinal studies suggest that depression and anxiety are associated with risk for cardiovascular disease. The aim of the present study was to test whether an association between depression and anxiety symptoms and retinal vessel caliber, an indicator of subclinical cardiovascular risk, is apparent as early as adolescence and young adulthood.


METHODS
Participants were 865 adolescents and young adults who participated in the Brisbane Longitudinal Twin Study and the Twin Eye Study in Tasmania. Participants completed an assessment of depression/anxiety symptoms (the Somatic and Psychological Health Report) when they were 16.5 years old (mean age), and they underwent retinal imaging, on average, 2.5 years later (range, 2 years before to 7 years after the depression/anxiety assessment). Retinal vessel caliber was assessed using computer software.


RESULTS
Depression and anxiety symptoms were associated with wider retinal arteriolar caliber in this sample of adolescents and young adults (β = 0.09, p = .016), even after adjusting for other cardiovascular risk factors (β = 0.08, p = .025). Multiple regression analyses revealed that affective symptoms of depression/anxiety were associated with retinal vessel caliber independently of somatic symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
Depression and anxiety symptoms are associated with measurable signs in the retinal microvasculature in early life, suggesting that pathological microvascular mechanisms linking depression/anxiety and cardiovascular disease may be operative from a young age.
From the Department of Psychology (M.H.M.), Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona; Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics (N.A.G.), Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia; QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (N.A.G., N.K.H., Y.L., S.M., S.E.M., M.W., G.Z., N.G.M.), Brisbane, Australia; Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) (A.W.H., D.A.M.), University of Melbourne, Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science (A.W.H., D.A.M.), Lions Eye Institute, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Brain and Mind Research Institute (I.B.H.), University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Environmental and Genetic Epidemiology Research (C.S.), Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; Department of Paediatrics (C.S), University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; Singapore Eye Research Institute (T.Y.W.), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Ophthalmology (T.Y.W.) and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; and Office of Clinical Sciences (T.Y.W.), Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore.
Madeline H
MH
Meier
Nathan A
NA
Gillespie
Narelle K
NK
Hansell
Alex W
AW
Hewitt
Ian B
IB
Hickie
Yi
Y
Lu
Stuart
S
MacGregor
Sarah E
SE
Medland
Cong
C
Sun
Tien Y
TY
Wong
Margaret J
MJ
Wright
Gu
G
Zhu
Nicholas G
NG
Martin
David A
DA
Mackey
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004200:Diseases in Twins; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012171:Retinal Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D012306:Risk; D013648:Tasmania / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult