Yuan Justin P, Borchers Lauren R, Lee Yoonji, Buthmann Jessica L, Coury Saché M, Joachimsthaler Julian, Jaeger Emma L, Ho Tiffany C, Gotlib Ian H
Dept. of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Dept. of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Transl Psychiatry. 2025 Aug 12;15(1):276. doi: 10.1038/s41398-025-03485-2.
The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns were an unprecedented source of stress, with striking adverse effects on adolescents' mental health but relatively unknown effects on important aspects of neurobiological functioning. Using data from 154 adolescents (age M ± SD = 16.2 ± 1.1 years; range = 13.9-19.4) drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study and assessed either before or after the pandemic, we compared the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic groups on three key stress-sensitive biological systems: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, immune response, and neural responses to affective stimuli. We found that compared to those assessed before the pandemic, adolescents assessed post-lockdown had significantly lower total cortisol production, elevated levels of systemic inflammation, and reduced neural activation in the prefrontal cortex during affective processing (pseudo-F(1,3250) = 7.43, p = 0.006). These findings suggest that, for adolescents, the experience of the pandemic was associated with significant disruptions in multiple biological systems that are sensitive to stress that might have enduring adverse developmental effects.
新冠疫情及其相关的封锁措施是前所未有的压力源，对青少年的心理健康产生了显著的不利影响，但对神经生物学功能的重要方面的影响却相对鲜为人知。我们利用一项正在进行的纵向研究中的154名青少年（年龄M±SD = 16.2±1.1岁；范围 = 13.9 - 19.4岁）的数据，这些青少年在疫情之前或之后接受了评估，我们比较了疫情前和疫情后两组在三个关键的应激敏感生物系统上的情况：下丘脑 - 垂体 - 肾上腺（HPA）轴、免疫反应以及对情感刺激的神经反应。我们发现，与疫情之前接受评估的青少年相比，封锁后接受评估的青少年总皮质醇分泌显著降低，全身炎症水平升高，并且在情感处理过程中前额叶皮质的神经激活减少（伪F(1,3250) = 7.43，p = 0.006）。这些发现表明，对于青少年而言，疫情经历与多个对压力敏感的生物系统的显著紊乱有关，这可能会产生持久的不良发育影响。
