7978Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, 274071University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Can J Psychiatry. 2022 Nov;67(11):841-853. doi: 10.1177/07067437221097906. Epub 2022 May 29.
Youth mental health appears to have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact on substance use is less clear, as is the impact on subgroups of youth, including those with pre-existing mental health or substance use challenges.
This hypothesis-generating study examines the longitudinal evolution of youth mental health and substance use from before the COVID-19 pandemic to over one year into the pandemic among youth with pre-existing mental health or substance use challenges.
A total of 168 youth aged 14-24 participated. Participants provided sociodemographic data, as well as internalizing disorder, externalizing disorder, and substance use data prior to the pandemic's onset, then every two months between April 2020-2021. Linear mixed models and Generalized Estimating Equations were used to analyze the effect of time on mental health and substance use. Exploratory analyses were conducted to examine interactions with sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.
There was no change in internalizing or externalizing disorder scores from prior to the pandemic to any point throughout the first year of the pandemic. Substance use scores during the pandemic declined compared to pre-pandemic scores. Exploratory analyses suggest that students appear to have experienced more mental health repercussions than non-students; other sociodemographic and clinical characteristics did not appear to be associated with mental health or substance use trajectories.
While mental health remained stable and substance use declined from before the COVID-19 pandemic to during the pandemic among youth with pre-existing mental health challenges, some youth experienced greater challenges than others. Longitudinal monitoring among various population subgroups is crucial to identifying higher risk populations. This information is needed to provide empirical evidence to inform future research directions.
新冠疫情似乎对年轻人的心理健康产生了负面影响。但对于物质使用的影响则不太明确，也不清楚其对年轻人亚组的影响，包括那些有先前存在的心理健康或物质使用问题的人。
这项探索性研究考察了在新冠疫情前至疫情期间一年多的时间里，患有先前存在的心理健康或物质使用问题的年轻人的心理健康和物质使用的纵向演变。
共有 168 名 14-24 岁的年轻人参与了研究。参与者提供了社会人口统计学数据，以及在疫情爆发前、2020 年 4 月至 2021 年期间每两个月一次的内化障碍、外化障碍和物质使用数据。使用线性混合模型和广义估计方程来分析时间对心理健康和物质使用的影响。进行了探索性分析，以检验与社会人口统计学和临床特征的交互作用。
从疫情前到疫情期间的第一年，内化或外化障碍评分没有变化。与疫情前的评分相比，疫情期间的物质使用评分下降。探索性分析表明，学生似乎比非学生经历了更多的心理健康影响；其他社会人口统计学和临床特征似乎与心理健康或物质使用轨迹无关。
虽然在有先前存在的心理健康问题的年轻人中，从疫情前到疫情期间，心理健康保持稳定，物质使用下降，但一些年轻人经历了更大的挑战。对各种人群亚组进行纵向监测对于确定高风险人群至关重要。需要这些信息为未来的研究方向提供实证依据。
