PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) – A new study from the University of Washington found lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic prematurely aged teenage brains — marking increased risks for mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
While stay-at-home orders, implemented by governments around the world, aimed to prevent the spread of the virus, the researchers said the disruptions to daily routines and social interactions had a negative impact on adolescent mental health.
Under these restrictions, the study found teen brains matured an at unusually accelerated pace, which was more pronounced among teen girls.
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The research team initially started the study in 2018 to learn more about adolescent brain development by studying a group of 160 adolescents ages nine to 17 but shifted focus towards the impact of lockdowns when the pandemic struck.
“Once the pandemic was underway, we started to think about which brain measures would allow us to estimate what the pandemic lockdown had done to the brain,” said Neva Corrigan, lead author and research scientist at I-LABS. “What did it mean for our teens to be at home rather than in their social groups — not at school, not playing sports, not hanging out?”
Abandoned, derelict ‘pirate’ boats still a headache on Willamette River Researchers measured brain aging by measuring the thickness of the cerebral cortex, which naturally thins over time, including during the teen years; however, chronic stress can speed up the process and can increase the risk of neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders, researchers said.
The study found the mean aging acceleration during the lockdowns was 4.2 years in females and 1.4 years in males.
Additionally, the cortical thinning was seen all over female brains in all lobes and in both hemispheres whereas thinning effects were only seen in the visual cortex of males, the study found.
Portland teachers union files grievance against Portland Public Schools directive restricting political displays Researchers explained the greater impact in females could be based on teenage girls relying more on relationships with other girls and prioritizing gathering, talking and sharing feelings while boys tend to gather for physical activity, Kuhl said.
“Teenagers really are walking a tightrope, trying to get their lives together,” Kuhl said. “They’re under tremendous pressure. Then a global pandemic strikes and their normal channels of stress release are gone. Those release outlets aren’t there anymore, but the social criticisms and pressures remain because of social media. What the pandemic really seems to have done is to isolate girls. All teenagers got isolated, but girls suffered more. It affected their brains much more dramatically.”
The researchers noted there is a chance teen brains could recover by thinning at a slower pace over time.
“It is possible that there might be some recovery,” Kuhl said. “On the other hand, it’s also possible to imagine that brain maturation will remain accelerated in these teens.”
“The pandemic provided a test case for the fragility of teenagers’ brains,” Kuhl added. “Our research introduces a new set of questions about what it means to speed up the aging process in the brain. All the best research raises profound new questions, and I think that’s what we’ve done here.”
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