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SUMMARY:The Dunedin New Zealand Longitudinal Study: Is psychiatric disorde
 r in early life a preventable cause of disease in late life? - Prof. Terri
 e Moffitt (Institute of Psychiatry\, Kings College London)
DTSTART:20091119T170000Z
DTEND:20091119T180000Z
UID:TALK20076@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:8810
DESCRIPTION:This lecture will introduce the audience to the Dunedin Mutids
 ciplinary\nHealth and Development Study\, a longitudinal study from birth 
 to age 38\nof a representative birth cohort of 1037 New Zealand men and wo
 men born\nin 1972-73.  The lecture will begin by describing the design and
  methods\nof this unusual study. The study's recent findings will be revie
 wed.\nThe lecture will end by describing new research that is now being\ni
 nitiated in the Dunedin Study\, which will take the study forward into\nth
 e midlife stage of development. Life expectancy is growing longer and\nlon
 ger. Policy makers and citizens are concerned that our extra years of\nlif
 e should be healthy\, productive\, and enjoyable\, not extra years of\ndis
 ease and disability. The hope of preventing age-related diseases and\nof i
 ncreasing health expectancy requires research to identify candidate\nrisk 
 targets that can be treated successfully\, in early life. The\nDunedin Stu
 dy will be testing the novel hypothesis that a persistent\nhistory of psyc
 hiatric disorder in early life might accelerate\nindividuals’ risk of pr
 ogression toward age-related disease.  Cohort\nmembers’ psychiatric hist
 ories of recurrent Depression\, recurrent\nAnxiety\, chronic Schizophrenia
 -syndrome\, persistent Alcohol Dependence\,\nand persistent Cannabis Depen
 dence will be defined using data from\nrepeated assessments in this longit
 udinal study. A unique design feature\nis that baseline physical health an
 d baseline neuropsychological\nassessments were carried out from birth to 
 age 13\, prior to the onset of\nmost psychiatric disorders. These prospect
 ive baseline health data are\nessential to test whether health and neurops
 ychological functions have\nin fact deteriorated in individuals with persi
 stent psychiatric\ndisorder. We will now assess at age 38 sensitive outcom
 e measures of\nsub-clinical health status that are known predictors of age
 -related\ndiseases in later life: neuropsychological tests of memory and e
 xecutive\nfunctions\, the metabolic syndrome\, immunological biomarkers\, 
 telomere\nerosion\, periodontal health\, bone density\, and respiratory fu
 nction.\nThese markers were chosen because they show meaningful variation 
 among\npeople in their late 30’s and are known early warning signs for\n
 dementia\, cardiovascular disease and other age-related diseases. If the\n
 hypothesis that psychiatric disorder accelerates progression toward\nage-r
 elated disease were shown to be true by this research\, this would\nimply 
 that age-related diseases could be reduced and well-being in old\nage enha
 nced by government policies to successfully treat child and\nadolescent ps
 ychiatric disorders.\n\n\n
LOCATION:Maxwell Lecture Theatre\, Faculty of PPSIS\, Free School Lane
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