COVID-19 Lockdowns Linked To Brain Inflammation And Poor Mental Health, Study Suggests

Lockdowns imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic may have caused brain inflammation among healthy adults who did not contract the virus, a new study from Massachusetts General Hospital suggests. Researchers examined the societal and lifestyle disruptions caused by the pandemic, and found that healthy adults without COVID-19 had higher brain and blood levels of various markers of inflammation after lockdowns, compared with before lockdowns. These disruptions “may have triggered inflammation in the brain that can affect mental health,” they wrote. The authors of the study, which was published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, noted that since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, the severity and prevalence of symptoms of psychological distress, fatigue, brain fog, and other conditions have increased considerably in the United States. Scientists conducted behavioral tests and collected blood samples from dozens of volunteers who had not previously been infected with COVID-19, both before …  » Read full article