COVID-19 and Mental Health

Anxiety

CBS News reported that 20% of COVID victims suffer negative mental health effects.  The Lancet Psychiatry medical journal  published a study showing COVID-19 may be linked to mental health issues in residents. Researchers found a diagnosis of COVID-19 is associated with increased psychiatric conditions and disorders including anxiety, insomnia and dementia.

6% of COVID-19 patients who had never been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder before were diagnosed with one within three months of getting COVID-19. The most common, was predictably anxiety. However, people diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder after a COVID-19 diagnosis can recover from it.

“The important thing is that it may or may not be having a psychiatric illness that puts you at risk of COVID, it might be one of these related factors,” researcher Harrison said. 

Psychiatric Complications

Another study published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal in June looked at hospitalized patients with severe cases of COVID-19 to see if they suffered any neurological and psychiatric complications from the virus. Incredibly, the study found that 125 of the patients did.

A third of patients experienced “an altered mental state such as brain inflammation, psychosis and dementia-like symptoms,” according to the June study. This includes signs of confusion or changes in behavior.

Almost a quarter of patients with an altered mental state were diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. The “vast majority” of which were found to be newly developed. However, researchers say it is possible some may have been simply undiagnosed before the patient developed the virus.

Health experts do not know the long term effects of COVID-19. Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he is concerned they could be serious.

“I’m worried about it. I don’t think we fully understand what these syndromes are,” Gottlieb said during a discussion at the American Enterprise Institute.

Please be safe and wear a mask.  Our mental health is also at stake.