Covid-19 Survivors Are At Risk Of Psychiatric Disorders

Research

A new study done by Mazza et al., 2020 published in thejournal of Brain, Behaviour and Immunitysuggest that more than half of patients who recovered from Covid-19, the virus SARS-CoV-2 were found to be suffering from psychiatric diseases months later.

Mazza et al. selected 402 male adults who have recovered from Covid-19 from San Raffaele hospital in Milan and followed them a month later. The psychiatric state was determined using self-reported questionnaires to detect post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, insomnia, and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptomatology. Other data collected through the survey included sociodemographic information and clinical information such as baseline inflammatory markers and oxygen saturation levels.

The study found that 28% of patients were suffering from PTSD, 31% with depression, 42% with anxiety, 40% with insomnia and 20% with OC symptoms. Overall, out of these 402 patients, 56% suffered from psychiatric diseases a month later after recovering from Covid-19. The relationship with psychiatric diseases and the virus is confusing as these psychiatric diseases are commonly associated as a side effect for people living with disability diseases.

However, the researchers acknowledge that Covid-19 patients have been severely isolated in hospitals this should be a major factor as to why these patients are developing psychiatric diseases“Considering the worse severity of Covid-19 in hospitalised patients, this observation suggests that less healthcare support could have increased the social isolation and loneliness typical of Covid-19 pandemics.”