No overall brain age difference in specific phobia, but subtle aging in young adults

Retrospective ENIGMA mega-analysis: No overall brain age difference in specific phobia vs controls, but younger adults (22-35) with formal diagnosis had +1.2 y brain age (d=0.14).

• Mega-analysis of 17 international cohorts: 600 specific phobia (504 formally diagnosed) and 1134 controls, ages 22-75, MRI-based ENIGMA brain age model.
• Primary: brain-PAD not significantly different by diagnosis (β=0.37 years, p=0.39). Diagnosis-by-age interaction significant (β=-0.08, pFDR=0.02), driven by younger formally diagnosed group (β=1.20 years, p<0.05, d=0.14).
• Limitation: cross-sectional, post hoc age-group analysis; small effect size, unclear clinical significance; no external validation of the age model used.

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