Metabolomic ageing across mental and behavioural disorders.

BACKGROUND

Individuals with mental disorders face excess morbidity and premature mortality. Accelerated ageing has been proposed as a contributing mechanism but population-scale evidence across diverse diagnoses is limited.

OBJECTIVE

To examine whether metabolomic ageing differs across mental disorders and whether associations vary by sex, age group and genetic liability.

METHODS

Using plasma metabolomic profiles from UK Biobank participants, we applied a metabolomic ageing clock (MileAge) to estimate disorder-specific differences between metabolite-predicted and chronological age. Mental disorders were ascertained from health records and self-reported physician diagnoses. We analysed nine diagnostic groups and 45 individual disorders and assessed sex and age group differences and associations with polygenic scores.

FINDINGS: Among 225 212 participants (54% female; mean age 56.97), 38 524 had a diagnosis preceding baseline. Substance use, psychotic, affective and neurotic disorders were associated with a metabolite-predicted age older than chronological age, largest for psychosis (β=0.556, 95% CI 0.250 to 0.861, p<0.001). Obsessive-compulsive and eating disorders were associated with a metabolite-predicted age younger than chronological age. Several associations were stronger in males and in individuals aged <65 years. Higher genetic liability to depression, autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder predicted an older metabolomic age (β range=0.020 to 0.047), whereas polygenic scores for psychosis and tobacco use disorder predicted a younger metabolomic age (β range=-0.023 to -0.040). For obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa, clinical and genetic associations indicated younger metabolomic ageing.

CONCLUSIONS

Metabolomic ageing in mental disorders is heterogeneous. While many disorders are associated with an older biological age, some are linked to a younger biological age. Divergence between genetic liability and clinical phenotypes suggests that non-genetic factors shape biological ageing differences.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Biological age should not be assumed to uniformly exceed chronological age across mental disorders. Sex and age-specific approaches could improve understanding of biological ageing processes in psychiatry.