Differing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health: combined population and clinical study
Differing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health: combined population and clinical study
Background: Identifying youths most at risk to COVID-19-related mental illness is essential for the development of effective targeted interventions. Aims: To compare trajectories of mental health throughout the pandemic in youth with and without prior mental illness and identify those most at risk of COVID-19-related mental illness. Method: Data were collected from individuals aged 18-26 years (N = 669) from two existing cohorts: IMAGEN, a population-based cohort; and ESTRA/STRATIFY, clinical cohorts of individuals with preexisting diagnoses of mental disorders. Repeated COVID-19 surveys and standardised mental health assessments were used to compare trajectories of mental health symptoms from before the pandemic through to the second lockdown. Results: Mental health trajectories differed significantly between cohorts. In the population cohort, depression and eating disorder symptoms increased by 33.9% (95% CI 31.78-36.57) and 15.6% (95% CI 15.39-15.68) during the pandemic, respectively. By contrast, these remained high over time in the clinical cohort. Conversely, trajectories of alcohol misuse were similar in both cohorts, decreasing continuously (a 15.2% decrease) during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic symptom severity predicted the observed mental health trajectories in the population cohort. Surprisingly, being relatively healthy predicted increases in depression and eating disorder symptoms and in body mass index. By contrast, those initially at higher risk for depression or eating disorders reported a lasting decrease. Conclusions: Healthier young people may be at greater risk of developing depressive or eating disorder symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted mental health interventions considering prior diagnostic risk may be warranted to help young people cope with the challenges of psychosocial stress and reduce the associated healthcare burden.
adolescent, alcohol use disorder, COVID-19, depression, eating disorders
e217
Qi MB, Lu
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Zhang, Zuo
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Robinson, Lauren
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Bobou, Marina
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Gourlan, Chantal
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Winterer, Jean
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Adams, Rebecca
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Agunbiade, Kofoworola
b42f3885-94ff-4d18-8327-57470f4e44da
Zhang, Yuning
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King, Sinead
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Vaidya, Nilakshi
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Artiges, Eric
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Banaschewski, Tobias
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Bokde, Arun L.W.
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Broulidakis, Manoussos J
59075dee-0c65-4378-ac04-411dedfcc6c1
Sinclair, Julia
be3e54d5-c6da-4950-b0ba-3cb8cdcab13c
20 November 2023
Qi MB, Lu
ca6b3391-62f0-4d7b-a964-9042481d9f16
Zhang, Zuo
a3b27d85-7aee-4e00-90d5-891b4aaa189d
Robinson, Lauren
9717fa1b-bcef-47a1-80c6-eea666e5c807
Bobou, Marina
2156bfec-57df-47f5-abc7-82adb799c100
Gourlan, Chantal
6de1b190-6b19-4ce4-91f5-e00bfb748765
Winterer, Jean
e14a6e29-7be9-4205-91b5-dd6f76ffff48
Adams, Rebecca
b29c8434-9314-4c8b-9173-955a044a9db7
Agunbiade, Kofoworola
b42f3885-94ff-4d18-8327-57470f4e44da
Zhang, Yuning
d04a3a32-daa7-4441-8bdf-9bbaeb44583f
King, Sinead
c0d2cd58-f52c-49dc-8bb3-d512ccac89f0
Vaidya, Nilakshi
d35330c0-faf3-421b-9a18-9f434176f16d
Artiges, Eric
961ede18-4e3b-4e8d-a4fa-53fa5ba2673d
Banaschewski, Tobias
62864e0d-9820-40ee-b28d-38d3a131b7d3
Bokde, Arun L.W.
006e1a79-7672-4c45-b7b3-bdc4b06bd86f
Broulidakis, Manoussos J
59075dee-0c65-4378-ac04-411dedfcc6c1
Sinclair, Julia
be3e54d5-c6da-4950-b0ba-3cb8cdcab13c
Qi MB, Lu, Zhang, Zuo, Robinson, Lauren, Bobou, Marina, Gourlan, Chantal, Winterer, Jean, Adams, Rebecca, Agunbiade, Kofoworola, King, Sinead, Vaidya, Nilakshi, Artiges, Eric, Banaschewski, Tobias and Bokde, Arun L.W.
,
STRATIFY Consortium, IMAGEN Consortium and ESTRA Consortium
(2023)
Differing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health: combined population and clinical study.
BJPsych Open, 9 (6), , [e217].
(doi:10.1192/bjo.2023.601).
Abstract
Background: Identifying youths most at risk to COVID-19-related mental illness is essential for the development of effective targeted interventions. Aims: To compare trajectories of mental health throughout the pandemic in youth with and without prior mental illness and identify those most at risk of COVID-19-related mental illness. Method: Data were collected from individuals aged 18-26 years (N = 669) from two existing cohorts: IMAGEN, a population-based cohort; and ESTRA/STRATIFY, clinical cohorts of individuals with preexisting diagnoses of mental disorders. Repeated COVID-19 surveys and standardised mental health assessments were used to compare trajectories of mental health symptoms from before the pandemic through to the second lockdown. Results: Mental health trajectories differed significantly between cohorts. In the population cohort, depression and eating disorder symptoms increased by 33.9% (95% CI 31.78-36.57) and 15.6% (95% CI 15.39-15.68) during the pandemic, respectively. By contrast, these remained high over time in the clinical cohort. Conversely, trajectories of alcohol misuse were similar in both cohorts, decreasing continuously (a 15.2% decrease) during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic symptom severity predicted the observed mental health trajectories in the population cohort. Surprisingly, being relatively healthy predicted increases in depression and eating disorder symptoms and in body mass index. By contrast, those initially at higher risk for depression or eating disorders reported a lasting decrease. Conclusions: Healthier young people may be at greater risk of developing depressive or eating disorder symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted mental health interventions considering prior diagnostic risk may be warranted to help young people cope with the challenges of psychosocial stress and reduce the associated healthcare burden.
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Accepted/In Press date: 6 October 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 November 2023
Published date: 20 November 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work received support from the following sources: the Medical Research Council and Medical Research Foundation (‘ESTRA’ – Neurobiological underpinning of eating disorders: integrative biopsychosocial longitudinal analyses in adolescents: grant MR/R00465X/; ‘ESTRA’ – Establishing causal relationships between biopsychosocial predictors and correlates of eating disorders and their mediation by neural pathways: grants MR/S020306/1), the European Union-funded FP6 Integrated Project IMAGEN (LSHM-CT-2007-037286), the Horizon 2020 funded ERC Advanced Grant ‘STRATIFY’ (Brain network based stratification of reinforcement-related disorders) (695313), the Medical Research Council (grant MR/W002418/1: ‘Eating Disorders: Delineating illness and recovery trajectories to inform personalized prevention and early intervention in young people (EDIFY)’ and the National Institute for Health and Care Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre. This work was co-funded by UK Research and Innovation under the UK Government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee (10041392 and 10038599) as part of Horizon Europe HORIZON-HLTH-2021-STAYHLTH-01 under European Union grant agreement number 101057429 (environMENTAL). Z.Z. is supported by a fellowship from the Medical Research Foundation (MRF-058-0014-F-ZHAN-C0866). Further support was provided by grants from: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (consortium grant 5U54EB020403-05-‘ENIGMA’) and National Institute on Aging 1R56AG058854-02-‘ENIGMA World Aging Center’), the Human Brain Project (HBP SGA 2, 785907, and HBP SGA 3, 945539), the Medical Research Council grant ‘c-VEDA’ (Consortium on Vulnerability to Externalizing Disorders and Addictions) (MR/N000390/1), the NIH (R01DA049238, A decentralized macro and micro gene-by-environment interaction analysis of substance use behavior and its brain biomarkers), the Bundesministeriumfür Bildung und Forschung (BMBF grants 01GS08152; 01EV0711; Forschungsnetz AERIAL 01EE1406A, 01EE1406B; Forschungsnetz IMAC-Mind 01GL1745B), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG grants SM 80/7-2, SFB 940, TRR 265, NE 1383/14-1), NSFC grant 82150710554, the ANR (ANR-12-SAMA-0004, AAPG2019 – GeBra), the Eranet Neuron (AF12-NEUR0008-01 – WM2NA; and ANR-18-NEUR00002-01 – ADORe), the Fondation de France (00081242), the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (DPA20140629802), the Mission Interministérielle de Lutte-contre-les-Drogues-et-les-Conduites-Addictives (MILDECA), the Assistance-Publique-Hôpitaux-de-Paris and INSERM (interface grant), Paris Sud University IDEX 2012, the Fondation de l'Avenir (grant AP-RM-17-013), the Fédération pour la Recherche sur le Cerveau; the NIH, Science Foundation Ireland (16/ERCD/3797) and USA (Axon, Testosterone and Mental Health during Adolescence; RO1 MH085772-01A1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
adolescent, alcohol use disorder, COVID-19, depression, eating disorders
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Local EPrints ID: 483450
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/483450
ISSN: 2056-4724
PURE UUID: 6bb57524-0f4c-4252-b44b-faa13c1281c4
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Date deposited: 31 Oct 2023 17:34
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 05:01
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Contributors
Author:
Lu Qi MB
Author:
Zuo Zhang
Author:
Lauren Robinson
Author:
Marina Bobou
Author:
Chantal Gourlan
Author:
Jean Winterer
Author:
Rebecca Adams
Author:
Kofoworola Agunbiade
Author:
Sinead King
Author:
Nilakshi Vaidya
Author:
Eric Artiges
Author:
Tobias Banaschewski
Author:
Arun L.W. Bokde
Author:
Manoussos J Broulidakis
Corporate Author: STRATIFY Consortium
Corporate Author: IMAGEN Consortium
Corporate Author: ESTRA Consortium
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