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According to a new study by researchers at the University of Oxford, 18% of patients infected with the coronavirus develop mental illness – including dementia, depression, anxiety and insomnia – within 90 days.
They also found that patients with pre-existing psychiatric health conditions were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19, according to a research article published in the journal. The Lancet this week.
“This discovery was unexpected and requires investigation,” said Max Taquet, co-author and academic researcher at Oxford. The Guardian. “In the meantime, having a psychiatric disorder should be added to the list of risk factors for COVID-19.”
Researchers have already found that patients with COVID-19 exhibit unusual neurological symptoms, including memory loss and stroke. A different study, conducted by researchers at the NYU School of Medicine, found that the virus was responsible for potentially damaging neurological damage, ranging from temporary confusion to seizures, in about one in seven COVID-19 patients.
This makes Oxford’s conclusion alarming, but many questions remain. It is not known, for example, whether the effects of mental illness are caused by COVID itself, pre-existing conditions, or another confounding variable. Another hypothesis, the researchers told the BBC, is that the mental health problems could be due to the drugs used to treat these disorders.
“People are concerned that COVID-19 survivors are at higher risk for mental health problems, and our results … show that it is likely,” said Paul Harrison, co-author of the article and professor of psychiatry at Oxford. Reuters.
Harrison also said health services need to prepare because “our results are probably underestimated.”
The study looked at the health records of 69 million Americans, including more than 62,000 confirmed cases of COVID.
The researchers did not claim to have found a direct link between the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders and COVID. The data also did not include more detailed patient records, including socioeconomic history or use of other drugs.
But a direct link is possible, Harrison said.
Likewise, it is not at all implausible that Covid-19 could have a direct effect on your brain and mental health, ”he said. The Guardian. “But I think, again, this has yet to be demonstrated in a positive way.”
Harrison also pointed out that the global stress of just living during a global pandemic may have influenced the numbers.
Other experts agreed that we should treat the results with caution.
“It is difficult to judge the significance of these findings … perhaps it is not surprising that this occurs a little more often in people with COVID-19, who may have feared, to rightly so, to become seriously ill and who will also have had to endure a period of isolation, ”said David Curtis, a professor at the University College of London, who was not involved in the study. The Guardian.
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