NBC News (7/22, Carroll) reports, “Brain aging may have sped up during the pandemic, even in people who didn’t get sick from Covid, a new study suggests.” By “using brain scans from a very large database, British researchers determined that during the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022, people’s brains showed signs of aging, including shrinkage, according to the report.” Individuals “who got infected with the virus also showed deficits in certain cognitive abilities, such as processing speed and mental flexibility.” The findings were published in Nature Communications. Psychiatric News (7/22) reports the researchers said, “Our findings provide valuable insight into how the COVID-19 pandemic affected brain health, demonstrating that the general pandemic effects alone, without infection, exerted a substantial detrimental effect on brain health, augmented by bio-social factors (age, health, and social inequalities).” (SOURCE: APA Headlines)