Changes in the mental health status of the younger population over the pandemic

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Aida Marie Taveras Del Rosario, in her pre-internship to become a medical doctor, born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

 Covid-19 is currently guilty of several deaths worldwide. Everything started In the beginning of January 2020 Wuhan Chinese authorities have identified the first case Therefore being confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) the outbreak of a new  coronavirus by march of 2020 explaining the high transmission causing a real risk to humanity. However other viruses appeared in previous decades as Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), avian flu, Ebola virus they sprayed by specific circumstances despite the COVID-19.

CDC (Centers For Disease Control and Prevention) describe  COVID-19 as several  acute respiratory syndrome the illness caused by SARS-Cov 2-2 spread mainly from

person to person through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. Some people who are infected may not have symptoms. For people who have symptoms, illness can range from mild to severe. Adults 65 years and older and people of any age with underlying medical conditions are at higher risk for severe illness.

Currently the virus has extended till this current year having several changes of our daily routine for the past two years. Having the positive side we have several vaccines that can stop the virus from spreading.

But, What impact has the pandemic had on the development of the younger population?

Many research have shown that the characteristic of adolescence in the process of becoming adult during the several steps on the pandemic might contribute to an increase of sensitivity of the psychological behaviour development. Talking in the neuroanatomy term the The limbic system is the responsible management of emotions specifically the epithalamus, severals investigations manifestation that during the teenage  years, this zone of the brains is very immature and smaller cause is till in the process of involvement, additionally the limbic system is also the this socio-emotional centre is likely to be focused on protecting the close family and social group in the face of real or imagined threats, also The hippocampus, which has connections with the limbic structures and  neocortex, has a role in integrating emotion with cognition. In comparison, the paper ‘’Glendon, Ian. (2006). Brain development during adolescence: Some implications for risk-taking and injury liability. Journal of Occupational Health and Safety – Australia and New Zealand. 22. ‘’ revealed that that adults showed greater activity in the parts of the

brains that create mental imagery, as well as those that can signal internal distress (both of these areas are associated with a rapid and automatic response, for example, to danger). Teenagers, on the other hand, showed greater activity in the part of the brainy hat is associated with reasoning and judgement, which results in more extended

decision-making. Meaning that the teenarger are more capable to adapt, making the correct decision, and think before act on the given  new circumstance that the new environment than the adults cause they tent to to think faster to survive in the actual time, therefore may be the reason the population that are on that adulthood survive in the current state of the world but their health is deteriorated unlike the population on the teenage years/ younger adults.

But why does the environment of the  younger adults and teengers have this decrease in the development of the brain?

As we said before the limbic system has the job of the management of emotions, behaviour and how to regulate our emotions in the social aspect. Along with  this investigation we may see that younger populations have decreased or increased  in the evolution of this part of the brain manifesting on the psychology-psychiatry aspect through the cause of being isolated for a long period of time without any physical contact with other people of their age. In addition, many circumstances of the pandemic had to offer either to decrease the population that have a mental pathology before or have made people without any pathology before pandemic acquired one. This study has shown  that there is more manifestation of symptoms in the behavioral aspect than psychiatric aspect.

Result

We asked 74 people members of the younger population this further points:

1- Had you been diagnosed with any psychological pathology before the pandemic?

2- How has your productivity changed through the pandemic?

3-  How do you think your mental health has changed through the pandemic?

4- Had you been diagnosed with any pathology after the pandemic started?

5- Do you think the environment that you are in right now (your home) has affected you on your mental health?

The results have shown that the population have been severely affected in the subject of productivity in the new environment manifesting in the more psychological aspect than physical. There is a minimal difference shown of 15% that the productivity decreased  versus stayed the same, but doesn’t  mean a direct relation on people who had any mental pathology before or after Covid-19 in the comparison on figure 2.4.

Conclusion

Finally we can say that the mental health in the current population have a relation on the new environment confirming the fact that adolescent have more capacity of grow on a new habitat but they are more moderate of making new decision of what tools use showing in the figure 3.3 Therefore we can say that  productivity  directly proportional of what environment we are ubicated for the development of the mental health.

Bibliografie

1-  Stephen Hauser, S. Andrew Josephson,Harrison’s Neurology in Clinical Medicine, 4th Edition, USA, 4th edition.

2- Glendon, Ian 2006/04/01 Brain development during adolescence: Some implications for risk-taking and injury liability. 22 Journal of Occupational Health and Safety – Australia and New Zealand

About the author

Aida Marie Taveras Del Rosario, born and raised in Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic is currently in the path of pre-internship to become a Medical Doctor in the UNPHU with the goal of being formally added on the medical staff as a general surgeon and to grow and learn more about the psychology of humans and their environment. However, Aida  has other knowledge on areas of art, writing and many others,as she always said ‘’ Put science and art in a bowl, mix it you will get medicine beauce is a art knowing how to heal others’’