PARIS – One in every three people who overcome Covid-19 suffers from a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis six months on, according to the largest study so far published on the mental toll that “long-Covid” takes on survivors.
Authors said the research, printed today in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, proves that coronavirus patients are significantly more likely to develop brain conditions than those suffering from other respiratory tract infections.
Studying the health records of more than 230,000 patients who recovered from Covid-19, they found that 34% were diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition within six months.
The most common conditions are anxiety (17% of patients) and mood disorders (14%).
For 13% of patients, the disorders were their first diagnosis of a mental health issue.
The incidence of neurological disorders, such as brain haemorrhage (0.6%), stroke (2.1%) and dementia (0.7%), is lower overall than for psychiatric disorders, but the risk for brain disorders is generally higher in patients who suffered severe Covid-19.
The authors also examined data from more than 100,000 patients diagnosed with influenza and over 236,000 diagnosed with any respiratory tract infection.
They found an overall 44% greater risk of neurological and mental health diagnoses after Covid-19 than after a flu, and a 16% higher risk than with respiratory tract infections.
Paul Harrison, lead author from Oxford University, said while the individual risk of neurological and psychiatric orders from Covid-19 is small, the overall effect across the global population may prove to be “substantial”.
“Many of these conditions are chronic.
“As a result, healthcare systems need to be resourced to deal with the anticipated need, both within primary and secondary care services.”
‘Severe impact’
Patients hospitalised with severe Covid-19 are at great risk of developing long-term conditions, according to the analysis.
For example, 46% of patients who needed intensive care were diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric conditions within six months of recovery.
The data showed 2.7% of people needing intensive care suffered a subsequent brain haemorrhage, compared to 0.3% of people who were not hospitalised.
And, nearly 7% of those needing intensive care suffered a stroke, compared to 1.3% of patients who did not.
Writing in a linked comment article, Jonathan Rogers of University College London said further research is needed on the long-term neurological and psychiatric outcomes among Covid-19 patients.
“Sadly, many of the disorders identified in this study tend to be chronic or recurrent, so we can anticipate that the impact of Covid-19 could be with us for many years,” said Rogers, who was not involved in the study.
“It is clear from this study that the impact Covid-19 is having on individuals’ mental health can be severe,” said Lea Milligan, CEO of the MQ Mental Health research group.
“This is contributing to the already rising levels of mental illness and requires further, urgent research.” – AFP, April 7, 2021
