Severe Covid-19: Lancet Study Associated with Increased Risk of Adverse Results of Long-Term Mental Health

According to a study published in The Lancet Public Health Journal, serious COVID-19 infections are associated with an increased risk of long-term adverse mental health effects.

Researchers found that inpatients with SARS-CoV-2 infection were more likely to experience depressive symptoms by 16 months after diagnosis than patients who had never been infected.

Patients who were bedridden for more than 7 days had a higher incidence of depression and anxiety than those who were diagnosed with COVID-19 but had never been bedridden, they said.

The study found that in non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19, symptoms of depression and anxiety almost subsided within two months.

However, patients who were bedridden for more than 7 days remained at high risk of depression and anxiety over the 16-month study period.

Researchers have described the prevalence of depression, anxiety, COVID-19-related distress, and poor sleep quality in people with and without a diagnosis of COVID-19 at 0-16 months. I looked it up. The analysis is based on data from seven groups: Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Of the 247,249 people included, 9,979 (4 percent) were diagnosed with COVID-19 between February 2020 and August 2021.

Overall, participants diagnosed with COVID-19 had a higher prevalence of depression and lower sleep quality than individuals who had never been diagnosed.

Research author Unnur Anna Valdimarsdottir, a professor at the University of Iceland, said:

“This suggests that the effects on mental health are not equal for all COVID-19 patients, and that the time spent bedridden is an important factor in determining the severity of the effects on mental health. “It is,” said Valdimarsdottir.

Researchers may explain in part why a faster recovery of physical COVID-19 symptoms reduces mental health symptoms at a similar rate to patients with mild infections. I pointed out.

However, patients with severe COVID-19 often experience chronic mental health effects, especially inflammation associated with depression, they said.

“The high incidence of depression and anxiety in COVID-19 patients who have been bedridden for more than 7 days is due to concerns about long-term health effects and long-term physical COVID symptoms that go far beyond illness. “It may be due to the combination of,” said Ingibjorg Magnusdottir, a research co-author at the University of Iceland.

“Similarly, the inflammatory response of patients with a severe diagnosis can contribute to more persistent mental health symptoms,” Magnus Dottil said.

In contrast, researchers found that the fact that people with mild COVID-19 infections return to normal life sooner and experience only benign infections reduces the risk of observed adverse mental health effects. He said it is likely to contribute to.

The authors acknowledged some limitations in the study.

First, individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 were slightly more likely to have a past diagnosis of mental illness than individuals who had not been diagnosed with the disease, the researchers said.

However, they said that the absolute difference in history of mental illness did not exceed 4% in any group and did not affect the interpretation of the findings.

Second, the researchers said the study reflected self-reported data on some interrelated COVID-19 diagnosis and mental health effects (coexistence of two or more states). ..

Third, most of the comparison groups responded between April and June 2020, and responses from COVID-19 patients accumulated between April 2020 and August 2021, they said. rice field.

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