Photo by Basak Gurbuz Derma / Getty Images
Photo by Basak Gurbuz Derma / Getty Images

New research has found that nearly 1 person in 5 diagnosed with COVID-19 is diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder like anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months.

The analysis was conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford, using electronic health records for 69.8 million patients in the U.S. — including more than 62,000 diagnosed with COVID-19.

Compared with patients who had experienced certain other health events this year — such as influenza, kidney stones or a major bone fracture – those diagnosed with COVID-19 were more likely to have a subsequent psychiatric diagnosis in the following 14 to 90 days.

“The incidence of any psychiatric diagnosis in the 14 to 90 days after COVID-19 diagnosis was 18.1%,” the study found, including 5.8% that was a first diagnosis. The research was published Monday in Lancet Psychiatry.

People recovering from COVID-19 were about twice as likely to be diagnosed with a mental health disorder as compared with someone who had the flu, says Paul Harrison, professor of psychiatry at Oxford and one of the study’s authors.

“That was within just the first three months,” he says. “We of course don’t know, in longer-term follow-ups, whether these risks will go on increasing — or whether once you get to three months, then the risks after you’ve had COVID really go back to the baseline risks that all of us experience.”

For the full story, visit NPR.org/Live-Updates.

 

 

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