The COVID-19 lockdowns caused significant changes in adolescents’ brains, a scientific study has found.
Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle used MRI data to show the normal thinning of the cortex that happens during adolescence was accelerated in teens during the lockdowns. The effect was greater in female brains than in male brains, the scientists found.
This is cause for concern because “accelerated brain maturation has been associated with increased risk for the development of neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders,” the authors of the paper write.
The authors suggest that lockdown stress caused the changes.
“Accelerated brain maturation as a result of chronic stress or adversity during development has been well documented,” the scientists write. “These findings suggest that the lifestyle disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns caused changes in brain biology and had a more severe impact on the female than the male brain.”
Lockdown Isolation
Adolescence is the peak period for the emergence of many psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression. Younger females, in general, are at a higher risk of developing anxiety and mood disorders than young males.
The new study could help explain the negative mental health effects that followed the social disruptions caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns, says Ann Liebert, a research fellow at the Kolling Institute at the University of Sydney, who focuses on autism and Parkinson’s disease.
“If you don’t have enough stimulation—isolation, as you can see—it can affect your development,” said Liebert.
“It happens in elderly people—we know that—but increasingly the isolation we can now see can affect children,” said Liebert. “And children are very vulnerable up until puberty, at about 14. So that’s why the adverse experiences of social isolation hit [that group] harder. Those people are the most vulnerable.”
Mental Illness ‘Explosion’
The lockdowns had a horrendous effect on teens, says Eugenia Steingold, Ph.D., a psychologist based in New York.
“We had an epidemic explosion of mental illnesses, many of which were so severe that hospitalization was required,” said Steingold.
“It was challenging to find facilities for my young patients in need, because all of them were overbooked. Many teenagers struggled with transitioning back to going to schools, and also couldn’t reconnect with their friends or create new friendships,” said Steingold. “Addictions to screens also soared. Overall, the consequences were so complicated and multilayered that it is difficult to quantify them, and serious, rigorous research is very much needed.”
Brain Care
The development of the brain reaches a critical stage during the teen years, says Liebert.
“The brain apparently starts to prune—all the synapses—in the teenage years, to change so that you become an adult,” said Liebert. “So, this is an absolutely critical time when we must look after sleep, hygiene, exercise, and social activities. Not just family at home, but in hubs, and that’s where the community comes into it, and the things associated with school and associated with churches and other community activities, it is crucial for teenagers to have that.”
Liebert says all these factors help brain development and the establishment of good sleep patterns.
“And so, when we have all the computer screens and television and lockdown and not being able to go out and exercise, I think that is why you’ve got the result that you have,” said Liebert.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, some schools had good strategies to “keep children really engaged socially, to get them out into the natural environment, to keep them off the computer, and help with the sleeping and have exercise,” said Liebert.
All those things “can reverse and stop the isolation that then has the secondary problems with diminishing the brain size,” said Liebert.
PBM Research
Liebert and her husband, Brian Bicknell, a microbiologist and research associate at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre, are two of the world’s leading experts in a type of light therapy known as photobiomodulation, or PBM.
If you don’t get enough light or enough Vitamin D, your microbiome becomes disrupted and you’re “more likely as an adult to get Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis,” Liebert says.
Although those debilitating diseases are the worst that can happen, “psychiatric illnesses and other things are also heavily influenced by the microbiome,” said Liebert.
‘Restorative Processes’
Although it is still considered a cutting-edge technology, PBM has been in use for over 30 years for a variety of ailments, including “brain diseases, depression, anxiety, traumatic brain injury—a lot of different things,” Bicknell says.
“It seems to work quite well, and it doesn’t seem to matter how you deliver the light to the brain,” said Bicknell.
“What the light does is increase the energy levels in cells by the mitochondria,” said Bicknell. “So, it specifically targets mitochondria, it increases energy levels in the cells, and that leads on to a whole bunch of restorative processes.”
Liebert says she hopes PBM will gain acceptance and be covered by health insurance “with the new, hopefully, bipartisan Congress and everything that you have coming forward.”
Harry Painter ([email protected]) writes from Oklahoma.
Internet Info
“COVID-19 Lockdown Effects on Adolescent Brain Structure Suggest Accelerated Maturation That Is More Pronounced in Females Than in Males,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., September 9, 2024: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2403200121
“Development of Frontal GABA and Glutamate Supports Excitation/Inhibition Balance from Adolescence into Adulthood,” Progress in Neurobiology, December 2022: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301008222001563
“Why do many psychiatric disorders emerge during adolescence?” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, November 12, 2008: https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2513
