The researchers tried to reduce the differences between the groups by adjusting for many demographic characteristics, pre-COVID-19 health conditions, whether they live in nursing homes, and other variables.
In the year after infection, COVID-19 patients had higher rates of mental health diagnoses than the other groups.
“I’m not really surprised because we’ve already looked at it,” said Maura Boldrini, an associate professor of psychiatry at Columbia University NewYork-Presbyterian Medical Center. “I am struck by the number of times we have seen people without a psychiatric history with these new symptoms.”
Most of the veterans in the study were men, three-quarters were white, and their average age was 63, so the results may not apply to all Americans. Still, the study included more than 1.3 million women and 2.1 million black patients, and Al-Aly said, “We found evidence of increased risk regardless of age, race or gender.”
There are several reasons that could explain the rise in mental health diagnoses, Al-Aly and other experts said. Boldrini said that, in his opinion, both biological factors and the psychological stress associated with having a disease most likely played a role in the symptoms.
“In psychiatry, there is almost always an interaction,” he said.
The research, including brain autopsies of patients who died of Covid, found evidence that the infection can lead to inflammation or small blood clots in the brain, and can lead to small and large strokes, said Boldrini, who has done some of these. studies. In some people, the immune response that is activated to fight the coronavirus infection may not be effectively shut down when the infection wears off, which can fuel inflammation, she said.
“Inflammatory markers can alter the brain’s ability to function in many ways, including the ability to produce serotonin, which is critical for mood and sleep,” Boldrini said.
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