Teamsters Local 848 sales agent Reyes Magana is tested for COVID-19 at a test site provided by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on July 16, 2020 in Long Beach, California.
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One in three Covid-19 survivors has suffered a neurological or psychiatric disorder within six months of virus infection, according to an observational study of more than 230,000 patient health records.
The study, published Tuesday in The Lancet Psychiatry, looked at data from the electronic health records of 236,379 Covid-19 patients on the U.S.-based TriNetX network, which includes more than 81 million people.
This group was compared with 105,579 patients diagnosed with influenza and 236,038 patients diagnosed with any respiratory tract infection (including influenza).
Overall, the estimated incidence of being diagnosed with a neurological or mental health disorder after Covid-19 infection was 34%, according to the study led by researchers at Oxford University when they examined 14 neurological and mental health disorders.
For 13% of these people, it was their first neurological or psychiatric diagnosis.
The most common diagnoses after having coronavirus were anxiety disorders (which occurred in 17% of patients), mood disorders (14%), substance abuse disorders (7%). ) and insomnia (5%). The incidence of neurological outcomes was lower, including 0.6% for cerebral hemorrhage, 2.1% for ischemic stroke, and 0.7% for dementia.
After considering underlying health characteristics, such as age, sex, ethnicity, and existing health conditions, there was generally a 44% increased risk of diagnosing neurological and mental health. after Covid-19 than after the flu and 16% more risk after Covid -19 than with respiratory tract infections.
Since the coronavirus first emerged in China in late 2019, more than 132 million cases of the virus and more than 2.8 million deaths have been reported, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Professor Paul Harrison, lead author of the study from the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, said the latest study highlights the need for healthcare systems to be equipped to deal with a potentially high number of disorders. neurological features in virus survivors.
“These are real-world data from a large number of patients. They confirm the high rates of psychiatric diagnoses after Covid-19 and show that serious disorders affecting the nervous system (such as stroke and dementia) also occur. rarer, they are significant, especially in those who had a severe Covid-19, ”he noted.
“While the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect on the entire population can be substantial for health and social care systems because of the scale of the pandemic and because many of these conditions are chronic. As a result, health care systems need to have the resources to meet the anticipated need, both within primary and secondary care services. “
Dr Max Taquet, co-author of the Oxford University study, said more research was needed to see “what happens beyond six months”.
“The study may not reveal the mechanisms involved, but it points to the need for urgent research to identify them, with the goal of preventing or treating them.”
Since the pandemic arose and spread around the world in the spring of 2020, there has been several investigations into the short- and long-term effects of the virus. The Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University noted that there is a growing concern that survivors may be at increased risk for neurological disorders.
“A previous observational study by the same research group reported that Covid-19 survivors have a higher risk of suffering from mood and anxiety disorders during the first three months after infection. However, so far there is no there were large-scale data examining the risks of neurological and psychiatric diagnoses in the six months following Covid-19 infection, ”the department said.