6 Months After Surviving COVID, 1 in 3 Have Neurological or Psychiatric Problems

[Quixote1818]

PATRICK GALEY, AFP7 APRIL 2021
One in three people who overcome COVID-19 suffer from a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis six months on, according to the largest study so far published on the mental toll that long-COVID takes on survivors.

Authors said the research, printed Wednesday in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, proved that COVID-19 patients were significantly more likely to develop brain conditions than those suffering from other respiratory tract infections.

Studying the health records of more than 230,000 patients who had recovered from COVID-19, they found that 34 percent were diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition within six months.

The most common conditions were anxiety (17 percent of patients) and mood disorders (14 percent).

For 13 percent of patients the disorders were their first diagnosis of a mental health issue.

Incidence of neurological disorders such as brain hemorrhage (0.6 percent), stroke (2.1 percent) and dementia (0.7 percent) was lower overall than for psychiatric disorders but the risk for brain disorders was generally higher in patients who had severe COVID-19.

The authors also examined data from more than 100,000 patients diagnosed with influenza and more than 236,000 diagnosed with any respiratory tract infection.

They found there was overall a 44 percent greater risk of neurological and mental health diagnoses after COVID-19 than after flu, and a 16 percent higher risk than with respiratory tract infections.

More: https://www.sciencealert.com/study-suggests-1-in-3-covid-19-survivors-suffer-mental-or-neurological-problems?fbclid=IwAR14C2tKNbNlm7kzmrXo-nC7BCTWQXA8EoQ63Yk_mrSgsyO7KLrL_OT7FOE

[KT2000]

1. Also include psychosis

that is probably being diagnosed as late onset schizophrenia. Not sure if that was what happened to a friend but they tested her in the psych hospital where she was committed for being out of her ever living mind, and found she tested positive for Covid antibodies. She
said she had sinus and eye problems a month before. It caused me to search and found there are other cases and they seem to involve paranoia.

One woman was afraid her children were going to be kidnapped so she drove to a fast food drive through and started shoving her children through the pickup window. Another woman said she knew she had to kill herself and that meant she had to kill her children too. She had enough awareness to drive herself to the psych hospital. Another man spent all of his time looking out all the windows in his house because he knew someone was coming after him. Another man killed himself because his fear and paranoia prevented him from doing work to support his family.

We have to get a handle on this because people who experience this are really out of control.

[greenjar_01]

2. Almost dying causes anxiety?

Science never ceases to amaze.

[uponit7771]

3. K&R, these sound like brain injury symptoms I STILL HAVE TO THIS DAY 5 years after getting

... one.

These injuries seemed to be brought on by lack of o2 to the brain, this is incidous

[KT2000]

14. More likely inflammation

in the brain. We are just lately learning that the blood-brain barrier is not as impermeable as once thought. There are situations (stress) and substances that can pass into the brain, especially through the olfactory bulb. I read early on that the brains of people who died of Covid-19 did not show the virus present but did show inflammation.

[AZ8theist]

4. Doturd had it, but...

How would you be able to tell if he has neurological problems?

[Lisa0825]

5. My 40-year old friend in great health got a "mild case" of covid...

She recovered well, though she did have increased anxiety, went back to work, and 2 months later, she had a mild stroke. Now on top of the physical recovery, she is having serious issues with depression as well.

[meadowlander]

6. I haven't had Covid

but I had a nasty, nasty flu bug that turned in pneumonia in early 2019 and it was a good 9 months after I was "symptom-free" before I started feeling like myself again and stopped having brain fog and panic attacks.

That's a big part of why I was determined not to get Covid even though I'm not in a particularly risky age group or health profile. I've never been seriously worried about dying from it but I'm terrified of long-haul Covid and losing another year (or more) to brain fog and inexplicable personality changes.

This needs to shouted directly in the face of anyone who is still advocating for herd immunity or who doesn't think they're at risk because they're under 60.

[crimycarny]

7. Hmmm..the psychological effect one is tenuous to me

Not saying it isn’t true but there are a lot of other things going on that could cause “anxiety” during a 100-year pandemic that’s lasted over a year. Is there a control group? If you take the whole general population I’m sure there is a lot more anxiety, depression, etc right now, COVID or no COVID.

The neurological symptoms seem more measurable. Again, not saying the study is wrong but I don’t understand how they can attribute increased anxiety and depression to COVID alone unless they are quizzing people who didn’t get COVID as well? Pretty much everyone I know is suffering more psychological problems than usual.

[JCMach1]

17. The brain fog is real. Despite the severity of my case, I was lucky

To not have any significant clotting (so no bleeds).

The neurological symptoms I had I can best describe as a type of dementia affecting memory, motor function and cognitive function.

For me at least those symptoms slowly faded.

I still have lung, heart, and an autoimmune disorder (HS) all of which were triggered/caused by CoVid

[live love laugh]

8. I've seen it first hand. Friend's son's personality changed from subdued to volatile and angry.

He was near death from Covid. He’s still physically weaker toon more than 6 months later.

He’s a very different person. But alive thankfully.

[bottomofthehill]

9. This scares the hell out of me.

I had Covid in Jan, fever of 103 a few days, then 100 for a few then 99 a few. Chills, aches, headache, head cold like symptoms. The one oddity is that a few months later, I am still tired all the time, when I get up in the morning, most of the day at work, when I get home, after dinner, and when I get back into bed....just tired, not exhausted, tired. Part of me was wondering if it was /is pTSD from the joy of 1/6, is it depression, fatigue from Covid lock down, who knows. Am I possibly over thinking this, probably, but still worries me.

[tulipsandroses]

10. I posted about my son's experience last summer. Not sure if it was Covid itself or the massive doses

of steroids and antibiotics - that can cause some psychiatric side effects, or probably a combination of all the above....

[JCMach1]

18. I can confirm,.demamethasone at the same time as remdesivir

Saved my life, but majorly affected me. I definitely had paranoid delusions and hallucinations while in hospital.

[Phoenix61]

11. Not sure a 13% bump is all that significant.

“For 13 percent of patients the disorders were their first diagnosis of a mental health issue.” That means for 87 percent they had a previous mental health diagnosis. Could a world wide pandemic and all the ensuing economic and social structure breakdown account for the additional 13 percent? Not an unreasonable assumption.
They also don’t mention how sick the individuals were. It’s known that ICU and being on a ventilator can have long term impacts.

[roamer65]

12. GET VACCINATED.

That is the clear message from articles like this one.

[Hugin]

13. Where's the COVID survivor ribbon campaign?

Maybe an association dedicated to research and support?

Or are these people YOYO.

[DFW]

15. You don't need Covid-19 for that

I haven't had it or a vaccine, and I'm still crazy after all these years.

[Johonny]

16. That would explain what's going on in the GOP right now...

[area51]

19. All the more reason

why we need healthcare as a basic right in the US.