A new study published in the Lancet Public Health journal has indicated that serious Covid-19 illness could increase the risk of adverse mental health effects. Most mental health symptoms among recovering Covid-19 patients subsided within two months after diagnosis, a report on the study in the British medical journal said. But patients who were bedridden for seven days or more were seen as more likely to experience depression and anxiety during 16 months of the study.
The study looked at data from six European countries: Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the UK.
The researchers investigated symptom-prevalence of depression, anxiety, Covid-19 related distress, and poor sleep quality among people with and without a diagnosis of Covid-19.
“Patients with mild Covid-19 disease were less likely to have depression and anxiety than those never diagnosed,” it said.
The findings suggest that, on the whole, non-hospitalised patients with a SARS-CoV-2 infection were more likely to experience depressive symptoms up to 16 months after diagnosis compared with those never infected. Patients who were bedridden for seven days or more had higher rates of depression and anxiety, compared with people who were diagnosed with Covid-19 but never bedridden, it said.
Of the 247,249 people covered in the study, 9,979 (4%) were diagnosed with Covid-19 between February 2020 and August 2021.
Overall, participants diagnosed with Covid-19 had a higher prevalence of depression and poorer sleep quality compared to individuals who were never diagnosed (20.2% vs 11.3% experienced symptoms of depression; and 29.4% vs 23.8% experienced poor sleep quality).
The analysis finds a clear reduction of some mental health symptoms such as depression and Covid-19 related distress with time.
However, by contrast, longer time bedridden was consistently associated with a higher prevalence of mental health effects.
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