Filenews 7 April 2021
People infected with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 face long-term mental health problems or neurological symptoms, researchers have discovered.
According to the study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, 34% of people diagnosed with Covid-19 were diagnosed within six months of being infected with neurological or psychological conditions, but those hospitalized or ICU faced an even higher risk, most likely due to the effects of stress and an immediate incidence of coronavirus on the brain.
British scientists studied the electronic medical data of more than half a million Covid-19 patients in the US and the chances of developing any of the 14 common psychological or neurological conditions including: cerebral haemorrhage, stroke, Parkinson's disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome, dementia, psychosis, emotional disorders, anxiety disorder.
And as they found, anxiety disorder and emotional disorders were the most common diagnosis in people with Covid-19, most likely attributed to the stress of experience from severe illness or hospital treatment. Other problems, such as strokes and dementia are most likely due to the biological effects of the coronavirus itself or the body's reaction to infection in general. Covid-19, however, was not associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease or Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Covid-19 as a 'brain disease'
Comparing a group of people with Covid-19 with two other groups -- with flu and other respiratory infections -- the Oxford University researchers concluded that Covid-19 is associated with more subsequent brain conditions than other respiratory diseases. As found, those who recovered from the disease caused by coronavirus were 16% more likely to develop a psychological or neurological disorder after recovery than after other respiratory infections and 44% more likely than people who recovered from influenza. In addition, the more severely affected Covid-19 patients were, the more likely they were to be subsequently diagnosed with psychological or brain disorders.
Emotional, anxiety or psychotic disorders affected 24% of all Covid-19 patients, 25% of those hospitalized, 28% of those who ended up in ICU and 36% of those who were delirious while sick. Strokes affected 2% of all Covid-19 patients, 7% of those hospitalized in ICU and 9% of those who had delirium, while dementia was diagnosed in 0.7% of all Covid-19 patients, up from 5% of those who had delirium. "Previous studies have highlighted that people with dementia are at a higher risk of being severely ill with Covid-19 if infected with the coronavirus, and this new study investigates whether this relationship is true vice versa. It does not focus on the cause of this relationship and it is important that researchers analyse the findings thoroughly," said Dr Sarah Imarizo, head of Alzheimer's Research UK's research department. As Oxford University Neurology Professor Masood Hussain explained, there is evidence that coronavirus invades the brain and causes direct damage, and can also have indirect effects, for example, affecting the creation of blood clots that can lead to strokes. While general inflammation, which occurs in the body as it reacts to infection, can affect the brain.
"The study confirms our suspicions that a diagnosis with Covid-19 is not only linked to respiratory symptoms, but also to psychiatric and neurological problems," says Professor Til Wykes of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London.
Source: iefimerida.gr
