Covid patients becoming the victims of mental disorders

Through a new study, it has been found that the survivors of COVID-19 are 20% more likely to suffer from subsequent mental disorders compared to the people suffering from other illnesses.

Psychiatrics disorders like anxiety, depression, insomnia etc. are being diagnosed in one in five people.

The researchers said that this was about twice as likely than other groups of patients within the same period.

The higher risk of dementia was also found in the study conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford and NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.

A professor of psychiatry at University of Oxford and leader of the study, Paul Harrison said that, people have been worried that COVID-19 survivors will be at greater risk of mental health problems, and there findings in a large and detailed study show this to be likely.

‘Services need to be ready to provide care, especially since our results are likely to be underestimates of the actual number of cases….. We urgently need research to investigate the causes and identify new treatments.’ he said.

The Lancet Psychiatry journal, published the study and used the electronic health records of 69million people across the US, including more than 62,000 cases of COVID-19.

Around 18% of people in three months after testing positive, a received first-time diagnoses of the aforementioned psychiatric disorders.

The study also found that people with pre-existing mental illness were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19.