A third of COVID survivors suffer neurological or mental disorders: study

[Judi Lynn]

By Kate Kelland
April 7, 2021 — 12.46pm

London: One in three COVID-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, suggesting the pandemic could lead to a wave of mental and neurological problems, scientists said.

Researchers who conducted the analysis said it was not clear how the virus was linked to psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, but that these were the most common diagnoses among the 14 disorders they looked at.

Post-COVID cases of stroke, dementia and other neurological disorders were rarer, the researchers said, but were still significant, especially in those who had severe COVID-19.

“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 Britain’s Oxford University, who co-led the work.

More:
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/north-america/a-third-of-covid-survivors-suffer-neurological-or-mental-disorders-study-20210407-p57h66.html

[Buckeye_Democrat]

1. That's just great. So now the anti-mask people...

... who survive might become even more insane.

[Geechie]

2. Which comes to

around 10 million people who will have neuro/brain disorders for the foreseeable future.

(Edit: that’s just in the US.)

Human. Kind. Be both.

[Backseat Driver]

3. Mitochondrial damage and brain inflammation

The immune system pathways - they're not just not for killing/eating germs anymore!

[Phoenix61]

4. There's a lot to unpack with this.

The odds of being severely ill with covid increase with age as does the odds of having dementia or having a stroke. This study leaves out how many had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder before getting covid.

[FBaggins]

5. Not sure they can demonstrate any physical causation at all

I'm sure that anxiety and depression symptoms are up significantly over the last year due to layoffs/lockdowns/financial stress/worry about avoiding illness and death/etc. It wouldn't be at all surprising that this would be even more likely among people who had actually been ill with the disease.

The virus wouldn't have to have any physiological impact on the brain at all for this to be the case.