According to data from the World Health Organization, one in eight people around the world is living with a mental illness. This represents approximately one billion people worldwide.
And, according to a recent British study, these mental health disorders could be the cause of accelerated biological ageing.
According to new research from King’s College London, people with a lifetime history of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorders have blood markers that suggest they are older than their actual age.
“It is now possible to predict people’s age from blood metabolites,” said lead researcher Dr Julian Mutz. “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.
“For example, people with bipolar disorder had blood markers indicating that they were around two years older than their chronological age.”
To conduct the study, the researchers examined data on 168 blood metabolites from 110,780 people registered in the United Kingdom’s Biobank database. They then combined this data with information about the participants’ history of mental illness.
Metabolites, which are compounds produced by metabolism, are biological markers that can be used to diagnose certain diseases or to monitor the progress of a treatment.
“This may not explain all the difference in health and life expectancy between those with mental health problems and the general population, but it does mean that accelerated biological ageing may be an important factor,” Mutz added.
According to the study, people with mental health disorders “tend to have shorter lives, and poorer quality health, than the general population”. These individuals have an increased likelihood of developing heart disease and diabetes, and these pathologies tend to worsen with age, the research says.
A 2019 study previously found that people with mental disorders, on average, live shorter lives than others, averaging about 10 years less for men and seven years less for women.
“If we can use these markers to track biological ageing, 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,” Mutz concluded.