Bodies of mentally ill people appear more aged than they actually are
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Individuals with a history of mental illnesses, including depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety disorders, have blood indicators that indicate they are older than they actually are, according to new research presented at Europe's largest congress, the European Congress of Psychiatry, on March 26.
This may help explain why people with mental health issues typically live shorter lives and are more likely to develop age-related diseases than the general population.
Why do people with mental health die younger?
Dr. Julian Mutz and Prof. Cathryn Lewis of King's College London examined data on 168 blood metabolites from 110,780 persons in the UK Biobank.
They connected this data to details about people's histories of mental illness, and they discovered that those who had a history of mental illness had metabolite profiles older than would be predicted for their age.
"It is now possible to predict people's age from blood metabolites. We found that, on average, those who had a lifetime history of mental illness had a metabolite profile which implied they were older than their actual age," said lead researcher Dr. Julian Mutz while presenting the work at the European Congress of Psychiatry in Paris.
"For example, people with bipolar disorder had blood markers indicating that they were around 2 years older than their chronological age," he added.
According to a news release, those suffering from mental health illnesses typically live shorter lives and have worse health than the population. Depending on the mental health status, estimates of the effect vary.
People with poor mental health frequently exhibit an increased tendency to develop diseases like diabetes and heart disease, which are likely to get worse with age.
In fact, according to a 2019 study, people with mental problems typically had a life expectancy of about 10 years lower for men and seven years shorter for women than the general population.
"Our findings indicate that the bodies of people with mental health problems tend to be older than would be expected for an individual their age," continued Dr. Mutz.
The difference in health and life expectancy between people with mental health issues and the general population may not be entirely explained by this, he continued, but it does suggest that accelerated biological aging may be a significant factor.
"If we can use these markers to track biological aging, this may change how we monitor the physical health of people with mental illness and how we evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving physical health," he argued.
"Understanding the mechanisms underlying accelerated biological aging could be crucial for the development of prevention and tailored treatments to address the growing difficulty of an integrated management of these disorders," commented Dr. Sara Poletti from the San Raffaele Hospital, Milan (not involved in the study).
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