How do psychiatric brains age?

Lots of research has been done to understand how human brains age, and scientists and clinicians generally have a good sense of how most people's brains and thinking skills change as they get older. Unfortunately, these research studies almost always exclude people with psychiatric disorders, because certain aspects of the disorders can make the study results difficult to interpret.

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As a result, we don't know very much about what "normal aging" looks like in older adults with psychiatric conditions. In the Neurocognitive Disorders Lab, we are currently investigating:

• The natural course of age-related cognitive change in older adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

• The natural course of age-related cognitive change in older adults with bipolar disorder

• Behaviours, lifestyle choices and health factors that are common in certain psychiatric disorders and may impact cognitive aging

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