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Researchers examined the medical records of 69 million people in the United States between January 20 and August 1. The data included 62,000 people who contracted Covid-19, in what the authors described as the largest study to date on the links between the coronavirus and mental health issues.
Within three months of testing positive for Covid-19, nearly one in five survivors (18%) has been diagnosed with psychiatry. This is about twice as likely as for other groups of patients with different diseases and conditions analyzed in the study over the same time period.
Researchers at the University of Oxford compared the psychiatric diagnoses in Covid-19 survivors with patients who had the flu, other respiratory tract infections, skin infections, large bone fractures, gallstones and kidney stones.
“The study reports that patients have a slightly higher risk of being diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, mainly anxiety or depression, after a diagnosis of COVID-19 than after certain other medical events,” said David Curtis, retired consultant psychiatrist and honorary professor at the University. College London and Queen Mary University of London, in a statement.
“For example, they show that there is an 18% chance of getting a psychiatric diagnosis after Covid-19 versus 13% after the flu,” Curtis, who was not involved in the research, told Science Media Center of London.
“It is difficult to judge the importance of these results. These psychiatric diagnoses are made quite frequently when people present to doctors, and it is perhaps not surprising that this happens a bit more often in people with Covid-19, who can naturally have they could become seriously ill and who will also have had to endure a period of isolation. ”
The study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal Monday, did not examine the reasons or mechanisms that could explain the link between the contraction of Covid-19 and a psychiatric diagnosis.
This could be explained by several factors, including a direct neurological or biological effect of the virus, the drugs used to treat it, worry and anxiety caused by the contraction of the disease and broader concerns about the pandemic, said study author Paul Harrison, professor of psychiatry at Oxford University and Warneford Hospital.
It is also possible that the electronic medical record data collected by the TriNetX Analytics Network did not properly capture the socio-economic or behavioral factors that could explain the link.
“We have to be careful in our interpretation and dig into this important question,” Harrison said at a press briefing.
Long-term data need
In the period between 14 and 90 days after a diagnosis of Covid-19, 5.8% of study survivors had their first recorded diagnosis of psychiatric illness, compared with 2.5% to 3.4% of patients in the study. comparison groups. Thus, adults have an approximately doubled risk of being newly diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder after a diagnosis of Covid-19, according to the study.
The study also found that having a psychiatric disorder in the previous year was linked to an increased likelihood of contracting Covid-19. This risk was independent of the known risk factors for the physical health of Covid-19, such as obesity, but could be explained by possible socio-economic factors.
Medical experts said the study had limitations. In particular, the follow-up period was only 90 days.
“Does distress persist in the absence of the proliferation of life-threatening infectious diseases?” This study does not offer long-term data – this should be at the forefront of our concerns when interpreting the results – it cannot predict psychiatric results after one year of follow-up and does not take into account physical symptoms. worrying post-covids that can be distressing, ”Jo Daniels, senior lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Bath in the UK, told SMC.
The study, Daniels said, did not note what proportion of Covid survivors in the study had long-lasting symptoms of Covid, which are known to be associated with disabling and distressing symptoms.
Dame Til Wykes, Associate Dean of Psychology and Systems Science at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, said we need to develop as many accessible forms of mental health support as possible .
“We know from previous pandemics that mental health issues typically occur in survivors, and this study shows the same pattern after Covid-19, so it’s not unexpected. But, while it’s not a new finding, the data and the care with the analysis gives us more confidence in their results. “
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