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A third of coronavirus patients suffered from psychiatric or brain problems within six months of being diagnosed with COVID-19, according to a study released Tuesday.
Researchers analyzed the health records of 236,379 patients with COVID, mostly from the United States, and found that 34% were diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric disorders six months later.
About one in eight patients, or 12.8%, were first diagnosed with such a disease, the study showed.
Anxiety, at 17 percent, and depression or mood disorders, at 14 percent, were the most common diagnoses, according to research.
Cases of post-COVID stroke, dementia and other neurological disorders were rarer, but still significant – especially in people severely affected by the virus, scientists said.
Of those who had been admitted to intensive care with the coronavirus, 7% had a stroke within six months. Almost 2% were diagnosed with dementia, according to the study.
The disorders were significantly more common in COVID patients than in comparison groups of people who recovered from the flu or other respiratory infections during the same time period.
“Our results indicate that brain disease and psychiatric disorders are more common after COVID-19 than after influenza or other respiratory infections,” said Max Taquet, a psychiatrist at the UK University of Oxford, who co-directed the work.
The study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, was unable to determine how the virus is linked to psychiatric conditions, Taquet said – adding that urgent research is needed to identify the mechanisms involved.
The researchers also suggested that the pandemic could lead to a wave of mental and neurological problems.
“While the individual risks for most disorders are low, the effect on the general population can be substantial,” said Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at Oxford who co-led the work.
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