Study: COVID-19 pandemic stress may have aged teens’ brains faster

(CNN) - COVID-19 appears to have affected mental health among the youth.

According to a study published Thursday in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, the stress caused by the pandemic may have prematurely aged teenage brains by at least three years.

Researchers from Stanford University compared scans of physical structures of these young minds and found growth in two brain areas that control access to memories and regulate emotions, including stress and anxiety.

The findings are based on 128 children before and after the end of the pandemic’s first full year.

Researchers say they don’t know if these changes in the brain are permanent and will do more studies in the future.

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