A new US study has found that COVID-19 illness increases the risk of new mental health conditions, potentially fueling existing crises of drug overdoses and suicides, according to The Guardian.
Long haul COVID effects are being discovered and being diagnosed with mental health disorders is one of them, such as stress, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, sleep issues, and an increased risk of substance use disorders.
The study’s senior author Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly said, “This is basically telling us that millions and millions of people in the US infected with Covid are developing mental health problems. That makes us a nation in distress.”
He said that the COVID-related increased risk of mental health disorders, including suicidal ideation and opioid use, is particularly concerning.
“This is really almost a perfect storm that is brewing in front of our eyes – for another opioid epidemic two or three years down the road, for another suicide crisis two or three years down the road,” added Dr. Al-Aly, who is the Chief of Research and Education Service at Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System.
The study findings suggest that clinicians must follow up with patients in the weeks and months after even mild COVID-19 diagnoses so the patients can seek quick treatment for any emerging disorders. Dr. Al-Aly said, “If we apply attention to it now and nip it in the bud, we could literally save lives.”
The study also found that more than 18% of COVID patients developed mental health issues compared to 12% of those who did not have COVID. Of those who developed mental health issues, 80% experienced cognitive problems, 41% sleep disorders, 39% depression, 38% stress, 35% anxiety, and 34% opioid use disorder.
The study findings have clearly suggested that COVID does have a marked effect on mental health.
Dr. Al-Aly explained, “People who were hospitalized had it worse, but the risk in non-hospitalized [patients] is significant and absolutely not trivial – and that represents the majority of people in the US and the world.”
Some studies have even found that the coronavirus can be found in the brain. Dr. Al-Aly said, “We can actually see the virus in the amygdala, in the hippocampus – the very centers responsible for regulating our moods, regulating our emotions.”
The findings also suggest that early detection and treatment of patients facing new mental health issues after COVID could make a crucial difference.
Dr. Al-Aly explained, “The idea here is to identify patients’ data early to hopefully reduce this from becoming a much larger problem down the road. If you leave a disease unattended, it only gets worse. The wave of people with mental health disorders is going to be hitting the clinics in the next year or two or three, as a result of COVID and as a result of the pandemic.”
