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The most frequently reported COVID-19 patients are disorders such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Researchers at the University of Oxford (UK) have also identified an increased risk of dementia (cognitive impairment).
“Experts have previously expressed concern that those recovering from COVID-19 are at increased risk for mental disorders, and the results of our study suggest this is likely,” said Paul Harrison, professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford. .
Researchers and clinicians around the world urgently need to investigate the causes of these disorders and identify treatments for mental disorders after COVID-19, Harrison said.
“Health services must be prepared to provide nursing services, especially knowing that the results of our study have probably reduced the number of potential psychiatric patients,” said the professor.
An article describing the study was published in the Lancet Psychiatry. Its authors analyzed 69 million. Electronic medical records of the US population, including 62,000. COVID-19 patients. According to the researchers, similar risks of developing mental illness are likely to occur around the world.
Three months after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, 1 in 5 patients who recovered were diagnosed with anxiety, depression, or insomnia for the first time. Other groups of patients were half as likely to have the same diagnosis during the same period, the researchers say.
The study authors also found that 65 percent of those with a history of mental illness were 65 percent. are more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than people without mental disorders.
Mental health experts, who did not directly contribute to this study, argue that the recent data only adds to the growing body of evidence that COVID-19 can affect the brain and psyche, increasing the risk of various psychiatric disorders.
“This case is likely to consist of the psychological stressors associated with this particular pandemic and the physical effects of the disease,” said Michael Bloomfield, a psychiatrist at the University of London College (UK).
Simon Wessley, a professor of psychiatry at the Royal College of London, said the finding that people with psychiatric disorders were at increased risk for COVID-19 was consistent with similar results from other communicable disease outbreaks.
“COVID-19 also affects the central nervous system and can directly increase the risk of subsequent disorders. However, this study confirms that this is not the whole picture: the risk of infection increases with poorer mental health,” said the professor.
Marjorie Wallace, director of SANE, a UK mental health patient charity, said her organization had experienced such a situation during the pandemic. “Our helplines are dealing with more first-time callers who have started with mental health issues, as well as more people whose previous fear and anxiety issues have returned and escalated to an intolerable level. “, said.
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