Accelerated Brain Aging in Schizophrenia: A Longitudinal Pattern Recognition Study

Abstract

The progressive brain loss in schizophrenia appears to reflect two different processes: one relatively homogeneous, reflecting accelerated aging of the brain and related to various measures of outcome, and a more variable one, possibly reflecting individual variation and medication use. Differentiating between these two processes may not only elucidate the various factors influencing brain loss in schizophrenia, but also assist in individualizing treatment.

The neurobiology of transition to psychosis

“…There has been a recent revival of this idea with brain imaging studies estimating an enhanced trajectory of grey matter decline among patients with psychosis. [13][14][15] Dukart and colleagues contend that their observation of pronounced age-related grey matter reductions in FEP and ARMS samples are in line with an accelerated brain-aging model, though several issues remain unanswered before considering accelerated aging as an indicator of transition.…”

Leukocyte telomere length: Effects of schizophrenia, age, and gender

“…This has led to a suggestion that schizophrenia is associated with accelerated biological aging (Anthes, 2014;Dawes et al, 2011;Kirkpatrick et al, 2008;Kochunov et al, 2013;Koutsouleris et al, 2014;Lindqvist et al, 2015;Okusaga, 2014;Schnack et al, 2016;Shivakumar et al, 2014). Whereas men have overall higher death rates than women, mortality ratios in schizophrenia (standardized to the general population with respect to age, race/ethnicity and geographic region) are higher in women than in men with schizophrenia, with cardiovascular disease being a leading cause of premature death in both genders (Olfson et al, 2015).…”

Inefficient Neural Self-Stabilization: A theory of spontaneous resolutions and recurrent relapses in psychosis

“…Several attempts to bridge the two notions have been made in the recent times [93][94][95][96][97] . Most of the proposed compromises hinge on the notion that a healthy adult brain continues to develop and change in its structure over time 98,99 ; hence a developmental aberration would continue to affect brain structure in adult life, thus explaining the neuroprogression in schizophrenia 100 .…”