Is it possible that this phenomenon is specific to people with those mental illnesses? A wider general population study resulted in the inverse effect:
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/6/1354
I only did a postgraduate degree, so I don't have the practice reading scientific studies to determine which is true. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in?
Studies of larger populations yield more typical results. Consequently, studies of smaller populations yield more extreme results.
That's not to say that these results might not be significant -- what you propose may be the case -- but I'd want to see an actual mechanism of action before buying something like this.
Idk about the op study, but I could imagine confounders with instant coffee consumption.
No, it affects everybody. Says so in the article. The distinction appears to be that severe mental illness is associated with shortened lifespan so coffee has a more profound anti-aging affect on that population.
Separately from this study, here's an interesting opinion piece by John Ioannidis titled "The Challenge of Reforming Nutritional Epidemiologic Research", published in JAMA 2018:
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/20...
via Andrew Gelman's blog: https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/01/26/article-po...