By Rachel Schraer, BBC News — Wednesday 7th April 2021
People diagnosed with COVID-19 in the previous six months were more likely to develop depression, dementia, psychosis and stroke, according to UK researchers who examined the electronic medical records of more than half a million patients in the United States. A third of those with a previous COVID infection went on to develop or have a relapse of a psychological or neurological condition, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal.
COVID-19 sufferers were 16% more likely to develop a psychological or neurological disorder after COVID than after other respiratory infections, and 44% more likely than people recovering from flu. Mood, anxiety or psychotic disorders affected 24% of all patients, rising to 28% in people who were in intensive care and 36% in those who experienced delirium while ill. Stroke affected 2% of all COVID patients, rising to 7% of those admitted to ICU and 9% of those who had experienced delirium. Dementia was diagnosed in 0.7% of all COVID patients but in 5% of those who had experienced delirium as a symptom.
The more severely ill the patient was, the more likely they were to receive a subsequent mental health or brain disorder diagnosis. The study authors pointed to both the effects of stress, and the virus having a direct impact on the brain. Prof. Dame Til Wykes of King’s College London said: “The study confirms our suspicions that a COVID-19 diagnosis is not just related to respiratory symptoms, it is also related to psychiatric and neurological problems — and looking over six months after diagnosis has demonstrated that the after-effects can appear much later than expected.”