Coronavirus can trigger mental health problems. (Photo: REUTERS / Clodagh Kilcoyne)
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Six months after testing positive for COVID-19, one in eight survivors is diagnosed for the first time in their life with neurological or mental disease.
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Research by scientists from Oxford also showedthat hospitalized patients are particularly susceptible to mental complications, although even those who are not hospitalized faced an increased risk of problems such as depression and stroke.
The findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, add to the growing evidence that coronavirus can cause short-term and long-term cognitive and mental health problems. It is not yet known how long they will last.
To conduct the study, the authors examined the medical records of 236,379 people who survived the coronavirus in the United States. They found that within six months, 33.6 percent of coronavirus survivors received a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis; 13 percent received such a diagnosis for the first time.
Patients who have been hospitalized, and especially those who have had encephalopathy (in this case, a broad term describing altered brain function or structure) are particularly at risk of mental illness.
The researchers found that most conditions, including stroke, intracranial bleeding, dementia, and psychotic disorders, were more common than in a comparable group of patients with influenza or respiratory tract infections.
«For diagnoses such as stroke or intracranial bleeding, the risk does tend to decrease significantly over six months. But for several neurological and psychiatric diagnoses, we have no answer as to when it will stop, ”said Dr. Max Tucket of the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry.
Past research has shown that COVID-19 can have a variety of cognitive and neurological consequences, including headaches and muscle aches, confusion and dizziness, seizures and strokes, and cerebral edema. Survivors also reported terrifying hallucinations, coordination problems, and memory lapses.
Experts continue to search for reasons why a virus, once thought to be respiratory, could do this kind of damage to the brain. Some researchers say the virus can directly infect the brain, and the immune system’s response to it can cause inflammation that damages the brain and nerves.
Previously NV wrote that, Vitamin D deficient patients are significantly more likely to be infected, according to new research COVID-19.
Joseph Katz, M.D., of the University of Florida College of Dentistry in Gainesville, and colleagues studied the strength of the association between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 in a cross-sectional study of large patient cohorts.
The researchers found that compared with patients without vitamin D deficiency, the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 was 4.6 times higher. After adjusting for gender, communication decreased slightly (odds ratio 4.58).
After adjusting for race, the status of periodontal disease, diabetes and obesity, the association decreased significantly, but remained stable (odds ratios 3.76, 3.64, 3.28 and 2.27, respectively). After adjusting for age groups, patients with vitamin D deficiency were more likely to contract COVID-19 than those without a deficiency (odds ratio 5.155).
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