COVID-19 pandemic caused rapid brain aging in young people

recently Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science In a study, researchers at Stanford University determined how stress and social disruption caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic affected neurological development in young adults. I am evaluating.

study: Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and brain maturation in adolescents: implications for analyzes of longitudinal data. Image Credit: Shan_shan / Shutterstock.com

Early adversity and the developing brain

Previous research has shown that early life adversity, such as exposure to violent environments, family dysfunction, and neglect, can accelerate brain maturation and aging in children and adolescents. I’m here. More specifically, these studies report an age-indicating decrease in cortical thickness in the brains of children who experienced early adversity.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, increased social isolation and a near-total shift to remote learning environments have caused many young people and children to experience significant adversity. These new challenges include increased economic stress, exposure to family violence, and the potential for infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19. associated with adverse effects.

We already know from global studies that the pandemic is having a negative impact on the mental health of young people, but we didn’t know how it physically affected their brains. ”

About research

A total of 163 adolescents were included in the current study, 103 of whom were female. All study participants self-reported their symptoms of depression using her 10-item version of the Children’s Depression Inventory. Participants’ anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Social Anxiety and Somatic Symptom subscales of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC).

In addition to self-reported mental health symptoms, a subset of the study cohort also provided magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain to obtain cortical thickness and subcortical measurements. These values ​​were used to calculate Brain Age Gap Estimates (BrainAGE) values ​​for all study participants using a gender-specific machine learning-based model developed by the ENIGMA-Brain Age Working Group. I was.

Importantly, participants in the ‘around COVID-19’ group, which included adolescents who had experienced COVID-19 shutdown, were more likely to be ‘COVID-19’ by age, gender, adolescence, exposure to -19 before” group matched.

Adolescent brains age rapidly during COVID-19 pandemic

Comparing the frequency and intensity of self-reported mental health symptoms, the researchers found that pre- and post-COVID groups reported more severe symptoms of anxiety, depression, and internalization problems compared to pre-COVID groups. I have found that it is possible to However, there was no difference between the two groups in how often they externalized the problem.

Analysis of MRI scans showed that participants in the COVID-periphery group had decreased bilateral cortical thickness and increased bilateral hippocampal and amygdala volumes. Additionally, the pre- and post-COVID groups were found to have higher BrainAGE compared to the pre-COVID group.

These neuroanatomical differences suggest that the brains of adolescents who have undergone COVID-19 lockdowns may grow much more rapidly compared to their peers evaluated before the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows that you are aging. Similarly, more positive BrainAGE measurements indicated that the brains of the group around COVID also appeared older.

It’s unclear whether the changes in brain structure observed by the Stanford University team are associated with changes in mental health. ”

Conclusion

The findings of the current study are important, as the COVID-19 pandemic and the stringent public health measures implemented to protect public health are critical to both the mental health and neuroanatomical development of adolescents. This indicates that you have caused serious damage. These unique changes may also prevent the current adolescent brain from matching what was previously obtained from young people of the same age only a few years ago.

Future research is needed to determine whether these changes are temporary or may have long-term effects on the developing brain. Future studies should explain the abnormal rate of brain growth observed in this generation.