In the current study, researchers used National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) data to compare 46,610 people with COVID-19 with patients diagnosed with a different respiratory disease to compare how COVID-19 was affected. the mental health of patients. The findings support a previous study of psychiatric disorders among post-COVID patients, although the current study found less results than previous studies, says another author Lauren Chan, Ph.D. student of healthy eating at OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences.
They looked at the level of psychiatric diagnosis twice: from 21 to 120 days after the COVID diagnosis of patients, and from 120 to 365 days after the diagnosis, limited to patients with no previous psychiatric illness.Researchers found that COVID patients had a 3.8% degree of mental illness compared with 3.0% in other respiratory diseases. The 0.8% difference equates to a 25% increase in the related risk.
They specifically looked at anxiety disorders and mood disorders and experienced a small but significant increase in the risk of anxiety disorders and no change in risk of depression. The large sample size and the fact that this data collection from across the US has given researchers a unique opportunity for adverse effects of post-COVID, Chan said.
The results speak of the need for patients and health care providers to be active when it comes to mental health problems following COVID infection, he said.”For people who have had COVID, if you feel anxious, if you see some changes in your lifestyle from a psychological point of view, it is entirely appropriate to seek help,” said Chan. “And if you’re a caregiver, you need to be on the active side and start testing those attitudes and tracking those patients.”
When patients leave the doctor’s office, sometimes the care stops there, but Chan recommends that providers consider calling within two weeks to get in.”There may be people who are struggling with new things like this, and they need that extra support or push to get help,” he said. “I don’t mean to say that everyone who gets COVID will have this kind of problem, but if you start worrying about yourself or a family member, it makes sense. You should definitely seek care. Or others around you.”
In the larger case of COVID and health care in the US, any increase in the number of people seeking care, especially mental health care, will add to the already complex system, reaching Chan.”We already have problems trying to identify a professional to work with, and we will continue to have difficulty getting people the care they need,” he said. “When we see this kind of increase in post-COVID attitudes, and people see it and try to seek care, it raises some concerns.”The lead author of this study Ben Coleman from the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine is already working on a follow-up paper that seeks to explore the link between chronic COVID symptoms and new psychiatric illness.
Source Journal Reference: Ben Coleman, Elena Casiraghi, Hannah Blau, Lauren Chan, Melissa A. Haendel, Bryan Laraway, Tiffany J. Callahan, Rachel R. Deer, Kenneth J. Wilkins, Justin Reese, Peter N. Robinson. Risk of new‐onset psychiatric sequelae of COVID‐19 in the early and late post‐acute phase. World Psychiatry, 2022; 21 (2): 319 DOI: 10.1002/wps.20992
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