According to research, depressed Britons saw a dramatic decline in their memories after locking down.
Researchers at King’s College London and Exeter University examined the mental health of 6300 older people.
Adults who are anxious or depressed performed poorly on short-term memory tests. Experts blamed this on their spending three quarters of the year in lockdown.
According to scientists, the scores below were equivalent to between 5-6 years natural aging. Also, attention spans took a big hit.
However, cognition did not drop for those over 50 who weren’t suffering from mental illness.
Exeter University researchers have found that lockdown was a significant factor in the decline of mental health among older persons (stock image).
Lead researcher Dr Helen Brooker, from Exeter, said: ‘It’s likely key factors were the unprecedented impact of worsening mental health caused by widespread anxiety over the pandemic, and long periods of lockdown.
“We have to better understand the situation so that we can devise effective strategies for supporting people, and to preserve brain and mental health in case of future pandemics.”
Researchers used data from PROTECT, an over-40 cohort who took cognitive tests each year and filled out questionnaires.
The study will examine how brains age in healthy ways and the reasons people get dementia.
It covered No10’s first lockdown, which began in late March and ended last November.
This also included the time in the fall of 2013 when the tier system came into effect amid rising Covid hospitalisations, deaths and other concerns.
KCL psychiatrist, Professor Dag Aarsland said they were able to “pinpoint” the decline through tests.
“We will continue monitoring how this unfolds over the time. Our insights can help to understand the effect of this pandemic.”
This research was presented at Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease, Boston, USA.
This means that it hasn’t been published yet in any peer-reviewed journal, which is a sign that other scientists have not had the chance to review and question its findings.
Charity Age UK warns that many adults still suffer from the effects of lockdown.
It conducted a poll with almost 15,000 Britons and found that 22 percent of them had difficulty remembering things. This is equivalent to about 3.2 million people nationwide.