Study Finds One in Five COVID-19 Patients Develop Mental Illnesses
In another worrying set of findings for the long-term impact of Covid-19, a new peer-reviewed study has confirmed reported links between psychiatric illness and Covid-19, with nearly one in five Covid-19 patients developing a mental illness within three months of testing positive for the virus and those with pre-existing mental conditions being 65% more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19, even accounting for other risk factors.
By examining the health records of 69 million people in the U.S., including over 62,000 Covid-19 patients, researchers from the University of Oxford and NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre found evidence that Covid-19 increases a person’s risk of developing a psychiatric illness, with one in five receiving a diagnosis within three months of testing positive.
