Psychosis as a multisystem disorder of aberrant aging
Abstract
Psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia and affective psychosis, affect ~3% of the population and typically emerge in early adulthood. Cardiometabolic disease accounts for much of the 20-year life-expectancy gap in psychosis. Evidence indicates potentially causal processes, often seen in aging, act within and beyond the brain, and before the onset of treatment; these include inflammation, metabolic and mitochondrial dysfunction. Here we synthesize evidence and propose a framework that proposes psychosis as a multisystem disorder of accelerated aging, and outline implications for aging-targeted interventions.
The paper
Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust; University of Pittsburgh
npj Aging, 29 May 2026, Open access

