According to a study published on Tuesday, a third of coronavirus patients were found to suffer from psychiatric or brain problems within six months of their COVID-19 diagnosis.
Researchers analyzed the health records of 236,379 COVID patients, mostly from the U.S., and found that 34 percent were diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric disorders six months later.
About one in eight of the patients, or 12.8 percent, were diagnosed with such a disease for the first time, the study showed.
Anxiety, with 17 percent, and depression or mood disorders, with 14 percent, were the most common diagnoses, according to the research.
The scientists said that cases of stroke, dementia and other neurological disorders after COVID were rarer but still important.
Among those admitted to the coronavirus in intensive care, 7 percent had a stroke within six months. The study found that nearly 2 percent were diagnosed with dementia.
The diseases were significantly more common in COVID patients than in comparison groups of people who recovered from flu or other respiratory infections over the same period.
“Our results indicate that brain diseases and psychiatric disorders are more common after COVID-19 than after flu or other respiratory infections,” said Max Taquet, a psychiatrist at Oxford University in the UK.
The study, published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, could not determine how the virus was linked to psychiatric conditions, adding that urgent investigation is needed to identify the mechanisms involved.
The researchers also suggested that the pandemic could cause a wave of mental and neurological problems.
“Although the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect across the entire population can be significant,” said Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at Oxford who led the work.
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