One-fifth of COVID-19 patients develop mental illness – Disease

A large-scale study found that 20 percent of those infected with the new coronavirus were diagnosed with a mental illness within 90 days, BTA reported.

Anxiety, depression, and insomnia are more common among people recovered from COVID-19 who have developed mental health problems. Experts from the University of Oxford also found an increased risk of dementia.

Doctors from the Military Medical Academy found an important detail in the operation of a patient with COVID-19

Doctors and scientists around the world urgently need to investigate the causes of mental illness after COVID-19 and identify new treatments, said Professor Paul Harris of the University of Oxford. He fears that the results of his investigation are likely to be underestimated.

The study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry, analyzed the electronic health records of 69 million people in the United States, including 62,000 people with COVID-19. The results are likely to hold true for people affected by COVID-19 around the world, experts say.

In the three months since testing positive for the new coronavirus, one in five recovered was diagnosed with anxiety, depression or insomnia for the first time. This is twice as many as other groups of patients during the same period. The study also found that people with pre-existing mental illnesses were 65 percent more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than mentally healthy people.

This is further proof that COVID-19 affects the brain and mind, said experts who were not involved in the study. This is likely due to a combination of stressors and the physical effect of the disease. COVID-19 also affects the central nervous system and therefore can exacerbate subsequent disorders.