Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov;48(6):1112-1121.
doi: 10.1111/cch.13043. Epub 2022 Aug 17.

Loneliness, internalizing symptoms, and inflammatory markers in adolescent COVID-19 survivors

Elif Akçay  1 , Esra Çöp  1 , Gülser Senses Dinç  1 , Zeynep Göker  1 , Aslınur Özkaya Parlakay  2 , Betül Damla Demirel  1 , Müge Mutlu  1 , Begüm Kırmızı  1
Affiliations

Loneliness, internalizing symptoms, and inflammatory markers in adolescent COVID-19 survivors

Elif Akçay et al. Child Care Health Dev. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Concerns about the psychiatric sequelae after COVID-19 infection have increased as the pandemic spreads worldwide. The increase in self-isolation during this pandemic period has also revealed the importance of feelings of loneliness. This study aimed to examine the relationship between baseline inflammation levels, internalizing symptoms, and feelings of loneliness in adolescent COVID-19 survivors in the long term.

Methods: A total of 74 adolescents (41 girls, 55.4%, mean age 14.88) and their parents were included in the study. This cross-sectional study assessed internalizing symptoms via Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) and feelings of loneliness using the UCLA-loneliness scale. Baseline inflammatory markers at COVID-19 diagnosis were collected. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine predictors for depression in adolescents.

Results: The most common disorder was Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (25.7%), and 33.8% of the adolescents were in the clinical range in at least one internalizing domain. Baseline C-Reactive Protein (CRP) levels correlated weakly with MDD scores. Loneliness scores correlated with all internalizing symptoms, strong association with MDD scores. Loneliness, anxiety, and parental anxiety were associated with an increased likelihood of MDD. Baseline CRP positivity did not predict MDD in adolescent COVID-19 survivors.

Conclusions: This study indicates that anxiety, loneliness, and parental anxiety play an important role in adolescents' experience of depressive symptoms after COVID-19 infection. Thus, screening parental psychopathology and loneliness in COVID-19 survivors seems to be preventive for adolescent mental health problems.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 survivors; adolescent; inflammation; internalizing symptoms; mental health.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Bauer, M. E. , & Teixeira, A. L. (2019). Inflammation in psychiatric disorders: What comes first? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1437(1), 57–67. 10.1111/nyas.13712 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Biederman, J. , Rosenbaum, J. F. , Bolduc, E. A. , Faraone, S. V. , & Hirshfeld, D. R. (1991). A high risk study of young children of parents with panic disorder and agoraphobia with and without comorbid major depression. Psychiatry Research, 37(3), 333–348. 10.1016/0165-1781(91)90068-z - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bursac, Z. , Gauss, C. H. , Williams, D. K. , & Hosmer, D. W. (2008). Purposeful selection of variables in logistic regression. Source Code for Biology and Medicine, 3, 17. 10.1186/1751-0473-3-17 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burstein, M. , Ginsburg, G. S. , & Tein, J.‐Y. (2010). Parental anxiety and child symptomatology: An examinzation of additive and interactive effects of parent psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 38(7), 897–909. 10.1007/s10802-010-9415-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carfì, A. , Bernabei, R. , & Landi, F. (2020). Persistent symptoms in patients after acute COVID‐19. Jama, 324(6), 603–605. 10.1001/jama.2020.12603 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Substances