Anti-depressants usage rising among teenage girls post Covid
The mental health of young adults and adolescents — particularly girls — worsened post the Covid-19 pandemic, reveals a study published in the journal Pediatrics.
According to researchers led by paediatrician Kao Ping Chua from the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in the US, the usage rate of anti-depressants among youngsters in the 12-25 years age group rose 64 percent post March 2020. Significantly, the rise in use of antidepressants during the pandemic was driven by females: 130 percent faster among girls aged 12-17 years and 60 percent faster in the 18-25 years age group.
“Antidepressant dispensing to adolescents and young adults was already high and rising before March 2020. Our findings suggest these trends accelerated during the pandemic. Multiple studies suggest that rates of anxiety and depression among female adolescents increased during the pandemic. These studies together with our findings suggest the pandemic exacerbated a pre-existing mental health crisis in this group,” says lead author Kao Ping Chua.
Mothers’ prenatal stress leads to early puberty in first-born daughters
First-born daughters of mothers who suffer high levels of stress during pregnancy are prone to reach early adrenal puberty, says a study published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. Adrenal puberty is characterised by physical changes such as growth of body hair, acne, and manifestations of cognitive maturation, but does not include the onset of menstruation and breast development.
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers examined data from two obstetrics clinics in Southern California. They did not find these correlations between mothers’ stress levels during pregnancy and early maturation signs in boys and daughters who were not first-born.
The study adds to research that explores the impact that stress and other factors affecting pregnant mothers have on fetuses and children long after birth. “This is a first-of-its-kind finding and is fascinating to look at through evolutionary lens,” says UCLA anthropologist Molly Fox, who led the study with colleagues from UC Irvine, UC Merced, Chapman and Denver universities.
Covid-19 vaccine not death risk for young adults
A study by New Delhi’s Indian Council of Medical Research has concluded that Covid-19 vaccination does not increase the risk of sudden deaths among young adults. On the contrary, the study suggests that receiving at least one dose of the vaccine may reduce the likelihood of such fatalities.
The research study which spanned two years (2021-2023), covered 47 tertiary care hospitals countrywide and focused on individuals in the 18-45 years age group who had no known comorbidities and died suddenly from unexplained causes. The study concluded that individuals who received two doses of the vaccine had lower odds of experiencing unexplained sudden death, while a single dose did not have the same protective effect.
“Over 100 autopsies were performed to establish the exact cause of death, and corelation with Covid-19 infection and vaccine dosage,” says Dr. Sudhir Gupta, head of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi.
The study, however, identified several other factors that increased the risk of sudden death including history of hospitalization due to Covid-19, family history of sudden death, use of recreational drugs, and engaging in vigorous physical activity 48 hours prior to death.
Climate change exacerbating adolescents’ mental distress
Climate change has increased mental distress among high-schoolers, says a study published in the Preventive Medicine Reports. Researchers of Drexel University, Pennsylvania (USA) surveyed 38,616 high schoolers from 22 public school districts in 14 US states and found that a quarter of them who had experienced the highest number of days in a climate disaster (hurricane, floods, tornadoes, drought, wildfire) within the past two-five years had 20 percent higher odds of developing mental distress than their peers who experienced few or no disaster events.
“We know that climate change has and will have catastrophic impacts across the globe. But we were alarmed to find that climate related disasters were already affecting so many teens in the US. Within the past two years, many school districts in our study were subject to climate disasters for over 20 days,” says lead author Dr. Amy Auchincloss, associate professor of epidemiology in the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University.
