Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent neurodevelopment and mental health

In a recent study published in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science (BPGOS), Researchers examined the impact of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on neurodevelopment and mental health in adolescents.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has created significant adversity worldwide. A meta-analysis observed that the prevalence of internalization problems doubled among young people since the pandemic began. Still, the potential impact of the pandemic on children’s neurodevelopment remains unclear.

Pre-pandemic evidence suggests a link between childhood exposure to adversity and poor mental health and maladaptive neurodevelopment, indicating accelerated brain maturation. Recently, researchers have been able to predict age from neuroanatomical features using machine learning (ML) algorithms.

About research

In the current study, researchers analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and neurodevelopment of adolescents. They included 163 adolescents from the San Francisco Bay Area who were participants in a longitudinal analysis investigating the effects of childhood stress on psychobiology.

Subjects were invited for follow-up evaluations every 2 years, but face-to-face evaluations were interrupted due to the shutdown of COVID-19. Two matched subsamples were created from this cohort using data from the end of the shutdown (around COVID-19). Specifically, subjects were matched as much as possible based on age and gender.

A 10-item children’s depression inventory collected information on depressive symptoms. Anxiety symptoms were assessed using the combined scores of her two subscales (physical symptoms and social anxiety) of the Childhood Multidimensional Anxiety Scale (MASC). Problems of externalization and internalization were assessed using the Youth Self-Report (YSR) subscale of the Children’s Behavior Checklist (CBCL).

A subset of participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Based on cortical and subcortical features, Brain Age Gap Estimates (BrainAGE) were computed using gender-specific ML models created by Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) – Enhanced Neuroimaging Genetics by Brain Age Working Group it was done. BrainAGE was calculated as the difference between brain age and predicted age.

The researchers conducted tests between the two groups for measures of externalization and internalization problems, cortical thickness, and subcortical volume, and found that peri-COVID-19 adolescents compared to pre-COVID-19 peers. I checked whether it is different from One-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests examined overall differences in mental health her scores. An independent sample t-test was performed to determine whether the two groups showed differences in aspects of mental health.

findings

The authors found no significant group differences in demographic and clinical characteristics between the two groups with respect to brain samples or mental health. The MANOVA test identified significant differences in mental health between pre-COVID-19 and pre-COVID-19 groups. A t-test suggested that adolescents around COVID-19 had more severe anxiety, depression, and internalizing symptoms.

There was no difference in externalized symptoms between the two groups. MANOVA tests on brain metrics showed significant differences between pre- and pre-COVID-19 adolescents. Adolescents in the peri-COVID-19 period had decreased cortical thickness and increased bilateral hippocampal and amygdala volumes. Furthermore, adolescents around COVID-19 had older BrainAGEs than adolescents pre-COVID-19.

Finally, the authors analyzed clinical function and brain measures as a function of time since the COVID-19 shutdown began on March 17, 2020. They found no significant association between the interval from COVID-19 shutdown to participants completing psychopathology. Measures and mental health/brain indicators.

Conclusion

The research team found that adolescents in the COVID-19 periphery group had neuroanatomical features. This is usually seen in older adults or those who have experienced adversity in childhood. is accelerating. In addition, the authors also noted her higher BrainAGE values ​​during adolescence around COVID-19, which reflects aging of the brain.

Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic impacts mental health and hastens brain maturation in adolescents. These results have potential implications for researchers analyzing longitudinal data from standard developmental studies interrupted by COVID-19. Future studies should determine whether these neural changes are transient or stable changes that characterize the current generation.