Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers around the world have made efforts to assess its impact on youth mental health; however, the breadth of this topic has impeded a clear assessment of pandemic outcomes. This study aimed to address this gap by reviewing changes in youth (age ≤ 25) mental health, psychological wellbeing, substance use, and the use or delivery of relevant services during the pandemic. PubMed and Embase were searched in May 2021 to conduct a rapid review of the literature. The results encompass 156 primary publications and are reported using a narrative synthesis. Studies of mental health (n = 122) and psychological wellbeing (n = 28) generally indicated poor outcomes in many settings. Publications regarding substance use (n = 41) noted overall declines or unchanged patterns. Studies of service delivery (n = 12) indicated a generally positive reception for helplines and telehealth, although some youth experienced difficulties accessing services. The findings indicate negative impacts of the pandemic on youth mental health, with mixed results for substance use. Services must support marginalized youth who lack access to telehealth. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40894-022-00185-6.

Males are more non-adherent to public health measures for containing COVID-19 while females experience more COVID-19-related distress. Personality traits may influence both non-adherence and distress. We examined sensation seeking (SS), anxiety sensitivity (AS), impulsivity, and hopelessness as traits potentially associated with non-adherence and distress in response to COVID-19. Furthermore, we sought to understand if known sex differences in SS (male>female) and AS (female>male) may explain sex differences on these two COVID-19 outcomes. In the first month of the pandemic, 400 adults (mean age = 32.16 years; 45.3%F) completed the Substance Use Risk Profile Scale to assess personality. Degree of adherence to public health recommendations and COVID-19-related distress were also measured. Male sex was indirectly related to poorer adherence to stay-at-home advisories via SS, and female sex was indirectly related to higher COVID-19 distress via AS. Personality-targeted interventions may help reduce non-adherence and COVID-19 distress, potentially reducing sex differences.

Among trauma-exposed individuals, substances may be used as a means of obtaining symptom relief following exposure to trauma reminders. Repeated pairing of trauma cues with substance use may lead to the development of classically conditioned craving to trauma cues. Conditioned craving following cue exposure can be studied in-lab using the cue-reactivity paradigm. To map cue-reactivity research conducted with trauma-exposed substance users, we aimed to synthesize research which studied our population of interest, used a cue-reactivity paradigm, and measured craving as an outcome. Three databases were searched using relevant keywords. Twenty-eight studies met our criteria. Four key 19 themes are discussed in our review of these scoped studies—(1) craving as an outcome; (2) methodological subtypes across paradigms; (3) affect as an additional outcome or as a mediator of cue-induced craving; and (4) cue-reactivity paradigms as an intervention outcome assessment tool. Overall, there is strong evidence for cue-reactivity paradigms as a useful means of eliciting craving in response to trauma cues. Our scoping review suggests the need for a meta-analysis to determine the magnitude of the trauma cue-induced craving effect in substance users with trauma histories, and to determine significant moderators (e.g., PTSD symptom severity) and mediators of this effect (e.g., negative affect).