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Bipolar Disorders

Comparing Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Before and During COVID-19-Lockdown Among Adolescents at Risk for Mood Disorders

(PS3-C55) Comparing Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Before and During covid-19-lockdown Among Adolescents at Risk for Mood Disorders

Friday, November 17, 2023
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
Data has indicated that youth mental health suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a recent highly publicized meta-analysis found minimal effects of the pandemic on mental health symptoms broadly. In an effort to clarify these disparate findings, we examined a specific subset of individuals – youth at risk for mood disorders. This study compared youth before versus during lockdown on mood lability, depression, and anxiety severity. Data was taken from baseline (i.e., pre-treatment) measurements from two family-focused treatment trials in which youth (ages 13 – 19 years) with early presentations of mood disorders were recruited. Both studies had the same inclusion criteria and data were collected between 2018 and 2021. Youth reported their depressive symptoms on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), mood lability on the Children’s Affective Lability Scale (CALS), and anxiety symptom severity on the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED). The sample was divided into two groups: pre-COVID lockdown and post-COVID lockdown, based on the March 13, 2020 date in which Governor Gavin Newsom established stay-at-home orders across California. The baseline data (i.e., pretreatment) was analyzed using two-sample t-test. A total number of 92 youth, consisting of 66% female and 65% non-Hispanic Caucasian were recruited into the study. Results indicated that youth had higher mood lability as reported on the CALS post-lockdown relative to those pre-lockdown (t(84)=2.78, p=0.01). The post-lockdown group had marginally significant higher depressive symptom severity on the PHQ-9 compared to the pre-lockdown group (t(84)=1.89, p=0.06). Anxiety symptom severity on the SCARED showed significant differences between pre- and post- groups on the following: overall anxiety severity (t(88)=2.36, p=0.02), panic symptoms (t(88)=2.12, p=0.04), generalized anxiety symptoms (t(88)=2.46, p=0.02), and school avoidance symptoms (t(88)=2.02, p=0.04). There were no significant differences between the two groups on separation anxiety (t(88)=1.02, p=0.31) or social anxiety symptoms (t(88)=1.70, p=0.10). Study results indicated that adolescents with mood disorders had greater mood lability and anxiety in the months following lockdown compared to their counterparts pre-COVID. While this study was not equipped to formally test COVID-19 lockdown as a cause of elevated symptom severity, it provides additional evidence of the psychiatric difficulties that resulted during lockdown. Future research should examine the trajectory of adolescents’ psychiatric symptoms as lockdowns have lifted and they have returned to in-person schooling. Determining the long-term psychiatric effects from the pandemic, will be important to better understand the psychiatric needs of youth.
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