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A third of coronavirus patients were found to suffer from psychiatric or brain problems within six months of their COVID-19 diagnosis, according to a study published Tuesday.
Researchers analyzed the health records of 236,379 COVID patients, mostly from the US, and found that 34 percent had been diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric disorders six months on.
About one in eight of the patients, or 12.8 percent, were diagnosed for the first time with such an illness, the study showed.
Anxiety, at 17 percent, and depression or mood disorders, at 14 percent, were the most common diagnoses, according to the research.
Instances of post-COVID cases of stroke, dementia and other neurological disorders were rarer, but still significant — especially in people who had been seriously ill with the virus, the scientists said.
Among those who had been admitted to intensive care with the coronavirus, 7 percent had a stroke within six months. Almost 2 percent were diagnosed with dementia, the study found.
The disorders were significantly more common in COVID patients than in comparison groups of people who recovered from flu or other respiratory infections over the same time period.
“Our results indicate that brain diseases and psychiatric disorders are more common after COVID-19 than after flu or other respiratory infections,” said Max Taquet, a psychiatrist at Britain’s Oxford University, who co-led the work.
The study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, wasn’t able to determine how the virus is linked to psychiatric conditions, Taquet said — adding that research is urgently needed to identify the mechanisms involved.
The researchers also suggested that the pandemic could bring a wave of mental and neurological problems.
“Although the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect across the whole population may be substantial,” said Paul Harrison, an Oxford psychiatry professor who co-led the work.
