A shocking new study claims that the brains of teens who lived through covid are found to be showing signs of premature ageing.
The researchers compared the MRI scans of 81 teens in the US taken before the pandemic with those collected post the covid between October 2020 and March 2022.
The study found speeding up of certain markers of age after comparing pre and post covid scans of the brains.
The team found that physical changes in the brain that occurred during adolescence – such as thinning of the cortex and growth of the hippocampus and the amygdala – were greater in the post-lockdown group than in the pre-pandemic group, the report in The Guardian said.
Ian Gotlib, a professor of psychology at Stanford University reportedly said that the Brain age difference was about three years which the researchers were not expecting.
The study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science said that participants were also assessed for symptoms of depression and anxiety.
The study on the group of teens from the post covid period reported "greater mental health difficulties" such as anxiety, depression and internalizing problems.
"Deterioration in mental health is accompanied by physical changes in the brain for teens, likely due to the stress of the pandemic," Gotlib reportedly said.
However, it is not yet clear if the poorer mental health reported in the study is driven by faster brain ageing, or if the latter is bad news for teens.