KUALA LUMPUR, August 8 — A study in Milan, Italy, revealed that more than half of Covid-19 patients who received treatment in hospital suffer from a psychiatric disorder after one month.
The Guardian reported that 55 per cent from a total of 402 patients surveyed suffered from at least one psychiatric disorder.
A total of 28 per cent of patients were found to be showing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while 31 per cent suffered from depression. A total of 42 per cent of patients had anxiety.
Another 40 per cent of patients suffered from insomnia, a sleeping disorder, and 20 per cent had obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms or widely known as OCD.
OCD symptoms can be caused by a personal crisis or negative experiences which affect a patient, such as deaths of other people.
“PTSD, major depression, and anxiety are all high-burden non-communicable conditions associated with years of life lived with disability,” according to researchers from San Raffaele hospital in Milan, whose study was published in the Brain, Behavior and Immunity journal.
“Considering the alarming impact of Covid-19 infection on mental health, the current insights on inflammation in psychiatry, and the present observation of worse inflammation leading to worse depression, we recommend to assess psychopathology of Covid-19 survivors and to deepen research on inflammatory biomarkers, in order to diagnose and treat emergent psychiatric conditions.”
The study, which was conducted among 265 men and 137 women, disclosed that women suffered more psychologically than men, although they were found to be less likely to die from Covid-19 compared to men.
The researchers, led by Dr Mario Gennaro Mazza, said that the immune response to the virus, preventive measures such as quarantine, and thoughts of infecting others leave a psychological impact on the Covid-19 patients.
“Considering the worse severity of Covid-19 in hospitalised patients, this observation suggests that less healthcare support could have increased the social isolation and loneliness typical of Covid-19 pandemics,” the researchers were quoted saying by the Guardian.
They also stated that their findings are in line with the earlier studies during other outbreaks, such as SARS, which showed a range of 10 to 35 per cent psychiatric morbidities in the post-illness stage.
Researchers from the University of Liverpool separately stated that hospitalised Covid-19 patients in the United Kingdom showed neurological and psychiatric complications, which may lead to confusion, stroke, inflammation of the brain, spinal cord, and other kinds of nerve disease.
So far, 19 million people have been infected by Covid-19 globally, with more than 700,000 deaths.
