Brains Of US Teens Aged Faster Than Normal During Covid-19: Study

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The devastating Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on all aspects of people’s lives, including their health, jobs, and way of life. The list of negative effects caused by the deadly coronavirus has been expanded by another alarming finding from a recent study.

The study, published Thursday in Biological psychiatry: global open science, found that anxiety and nervousness about pandemic lockdowns made adolescent brains age three years earlier. These effects are similar to those seen in children who have suffered long-term stress and trauma.

Traumatic childhood experiences can increase the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and other long-term negative effects, as well as making people more susceptible to mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction. Based on these facts, it is obvious that premature aging of children’s brains is a negative development.

The researchers said that “we found that young people tested after the pandemic lockdowns had more severe internalized mental health problems, reduced cortical thickness, larger hippocampal and amygdala volumes, and older brain age.”

“Therefore, the covid-19 pandemic not only appears to have worsened mental health and accelerated brain aging in adolescents, but also poses significant challenges for researchers analyzing data from longitudinal studies of regulatory development that were interrupted. because of the pandemic.”

According to CNNIan Gotlib, lead author of the new study, said the research team expected to find issues with anxiety, depression and internalizing problems.

“The pandemic has not been kind to adolescent mental health,” said Gotlib, a professor of psychology at Stanford University.

But they weren’t exactly sure what they would find with the MRIs.

“It’s always interesting to do research like this when you’re not really sure what’s going to happen,” Gotlib said. “These effects were interesting and they happened quite quickly.

“This was only a one-year shutdown, so we didn’t know the effects on the brain would be so pronounced after that short period of stress,” he added. “It keeps track of the mental health difficulties we’re seeing.”