Covid-19 infection is associated with an increased risk – then – up to a year later – of developing mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, alcohol and other addictive substances, sleep disturbance, suicidal ideation, etc., according to a new major American scientific research. The study, the most comprehensive of its kind to date, points out that the mental health of those suffering from coronavirus, whether severe or mild, should be considered a matter of priority and even in the long run.
The researchers, led by Dr. Ziyad-Al-Ali of the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Center for Clinical Epidemiology of the Veterans Health System in St. Louis, published their findings in the British Medical Journal BMJ. for almost 156,000 people with a mean age of 63 years who were diagnosed positive for coronavirus and whether or not they were hospitalized, as well as for two control groups of 5.6 and 5.8 million people without Covid-19.
The one-year study compared the mental health of the three groups and found that those who took Covid-19 generally had a 60% higher risk of being later diagnosed with a mental health problem or being prescribed a psychotropic drug. For those specifically hospitalized for coronavirus, the risk of subsequent mental health disorders was increased by 86%.
People who had coronavirus were 35% more likely to develop anxiety disorders later, almost 40% more likely to develop depression and 55% more likely to take antidepressants, and 65% more likely to use benzodiazepines to treat anxiety. They were also 41% more likely to suffer from sleep disorders, 80% from neurological impairment (memory loss, confusion, difficulty concentrating, etc.) and 46% from suicidal ideation, while they had a 34% higher risk of developing disorders due to opioid abuse and 20% non-opioids (eg alcohol).
Covid-19 was associated with 24 more people per 1,000 with sleep disorders, 15 per 1,000 with depression, 11 per 1,000 with neurological impairment, and 4 per 1,000 with non-opioid abuse. The risk to mental health was higher in people who needed to be hospitalized after a coronavirus infection, but also in those who had not been treated for Covid-19.
Mental health problems were also more common in people with Covid-19 than in those who had the flu, compared with a group of 72,707 people who had the flu, of whom nearly 12,000 had been treated. The risk of mental health problems was 27% and 45% higher for those who had mild and severe Covid-19, respectively, than those with the flu. “I hope this dispels the notion that Covid-19 is like the flu. It is something much more serious,” said Dr Al-‘Ali.
With more than 416 million people worldwide now diagnosed with coronavirus, the researchers noted that “Covid-19 infections may have contributed to more than 14.8 million new cases of mental health disorders worldwide.” Al-Ali added: “These calculations do not include an incalculable number of people, probably several million, who are suffering silently due to mental health or lack of resources and support. In fact, we expect the problem to worsen because the cases appear “They increase over time. Honestly, the extent of this mental health crisis is terrible and sad.”
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