Childhood trauma linked to higher estimated brain age
In 495 adults, each additional childhood trauma questionnaire point was associated with a 0.04-year increase in the gap between predicted brain age and actual age.
Dose-response, independent replication
Limit: The overall association was not statistically significant in the independent replication dataset
Stake: Lundbeck funded the study. AstraZeneca funded the study.
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
A cross-sectional observational study examined 495 adults over 18: 248 with bipolar I disorder, 126 with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and 121 healthy controls. Researchers assessed reported childhood trauma with a questionnaire and used machine learning to estimate brain age from magnetic resonance imaging scans. They subtracted actual age from predicted age to calculate a brain age gap.
Higher trauma severity was associated with a larger gap, independent of diagnosis. In a separate dataset of 80 people with schizophrenia and 83 healthy controls, this overall association was not statistically significant. However, both datasets linked more trauma types and higher trauma-score categories to larger gaps. Deprivation—emotional and physical neglect—was associated with larger gaps in both datasets. Threat, measured through reported abuse, was not.
Why it matters
Childhood trauma has been associated with early puberty and cellular aging. This study examined whether a related pattern might extend to brain aging across psychiatric diagnoses.
Caveats
The cross-sectional design cannot establish that trauma caused faster brain aging over time. Brain age was a model-based estimate, and participants reported childhood trauma through a questionnaire.
The paper
University Medical Center Groningen
Schizophrenia Bulletin, Nov 23, 2025, Open access
