One in three Covid survivors diagnosed with mental condition within six months of infection
One in three people who suffered severe illness from coronavirus have been diagnosed with a neurological or psychological condition within six months of recovering, a study has found.
Researchers at the University of Oxford looked at the electronic 2020 health records of more than 230,000 Covid-19 patients, with their results published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.
Scientists found that 34 per cent of patients experienced mental health and neurological conditions six months after infection.
The most common condition diagnosed was anxiety, which 17 per cent of previous Covid sufferers developed.
Meanwhile, 14 per cent of patients developed mood disorders, 7 per cent had substance misuse disorders and 5 per cent subsequently suffered insomnia.
After taking into account underlying health characteristics such as age, sex, ethnicity and existing health conditions, there was a 44 per cent greater risk of neurological and mental health diagnoses after Covid-19 than after flu.
Prof Paul Harrison, lead author of the study, from the University of Oxford, said: “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) occur too.
“While the latter is much rarer, they are significant, especially in those who had severe Covid-19.”
Harrison added that healthcare systems needed to be fully resourced to deal with the aftermath of the coronavirus crisis.
At least 4.3m people in the UK have tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, with a total 457,650 patients admitted to hospital with coronavirus since March last year.
Around 1.1m previous coronavirus sufferers are thought to have developed so-called Long Covid, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said last week.
Common symptoms of Long Covid include breathlessness, headaches, cough, fatigue and cognitive impairment or “brain fog”, with some emerging evidence that some people experience organ damage.
The government last month pledged to invest £18.5m into research projects looking at the long-term effects of coronavirus.