Brains of schizophrenia and bipolar patients are older than their age would suggest
A new research method shows that the connection between mental illness and poor brain health is stronger than researchers were aware of.
It has long been known that people with brain disorders often have an older brain than they should have, given their age. People with dementia, for example, fall into this category.
Diseases like multiple sclerosis that affect younger people, who should have a young brain based on their age, can make the brain older than the patient's chronological age.
But recently, a new method has shown that mental illness also affects brain health, “perhaps to a much greater extent than we’ve previously been aware of,” says Irene Voldsbekk.
Voldsbekk is a psychologist and research fellow at the Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT).
https://sciencenorway.no/bipolar-disorder-medical-methods-mental-illness/brains-of-schizophrenia-and-bipolar-patients-are-older-than-their-age-would-suggest/2092862
Diseases like multiple sclerosis that affect younger people, who should have a young brain based on their age, can make the brain older than the patient's chronological age.
But recently, a new method has shown that mental illness also affects brain health, “perhaps to a much greater extent than we’ve previously been aware of,” says Irene Voldsbekk.
Voldsbekk is a psychologist and research fellow at the Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT).
https://sciencenorway.no/bipolar-disorder-medical-methods-mental-illness/brains-of-schizophrenia-and-bipolar-patients-are-older-than-their-age-would-suggest/2092862