Increased risk of mental health disorders after Covid, study finds

People who have had Covid-19 show an increased risk of developing mental health disorders, even after mild infection, a large US study has found.

The research, published in the BMJ, suggested people who have had Covid-19 are experiencing increasing rates of disorders including depression, anxiety and stress. This prompted the study authors to underline the importance of tackling mental health among Covid survivors. 

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It followed 153,848 people who survived at least 30 days after a positive PCR test between March 2020 and January 2021 for one year, and compared them to two control groups without Covid – 5,637,840 contemporary controls and 5,859,251 controls from before the pandemic.

People with Covid showed an increased risk of incident mental health disorders, including anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, stress and adjustment disorders, opioid use disorder, other (non-opioid) substance use disorders, neurocognitive decline, and sleep disorders, it found.

Risk was even increased among those not admitted to hospital during the acute phase of Covid infection, although risks were highest in those admitted to hospital.

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In a separate opinion piece also published in the BMJ, Ziyad Al-Aly, a study author, underlined people without Covid did not show the same increased risk of mental health outcomes despite them being exposed ‘to the same adverse forces of the pandemic’, including economic and social.

He added: ‘The increased risks of mental health outcomes in people with Covid-19 demands greater attention now to mitigate much more serious downstream consequences in the future.’

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Dr Al-Aly said the findings show that mental health disorders ‘represent one part of the multifaceted nature of long Covid’, which ‘demands greater attention now to better understand it’.

This comes after research found almost one in three older adults who were infected with Covid in 2020 developed at least one new condition needing medical attention in the following months.