Contracting COVID-19 increases the risk of developing neurological conditions including depression, dementia and stroke, new research has revealed.
One in three survivors of the deadly virus – 34 per cent – were diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition within six months of being infected.
And for those who were admitted to hospital or intensive care, the risk became even higher, University of Oxford researchers found, at 39 per cent.
This rose to 46 per cent in those who needed intensive care, and 62 per cent among people who had encephalopathy while battling COVID-19.
For 13 per cent of people, it was their first recorded neurological or psychiatric diagnosis.
The study, the largest of its kind to date and published in The Lancet, analysed the TriNetX electronic 2020 health records of more than 230,000 COVID-19 patients, mostly from the US.
In addition to the most common effects in those with the virus – anxiety and mood disorders – other neurological consequences included brain haemorrhage, stroke, dementia and psychosis.
The authors of the study concluded that “substantial effects on health and social care systems are likely to occur” and that further “urgent” research needs to be carried out to establish how such effects happen and what can be done to treat them.
The research team found that anxiety and mood disorders were likely to be due to the stress of having COVID-19 and its effects, while stroke and dementia were more likely to be due to the biological impacts of the virus and the body’s reaction to it.
The study was conducted by researchers looking at the occurrence of 14 neurological and mental health disorders among 236,379 patients over the age of ten who were infected with COVID-19 on or after January 20, 2020, and who were still alive on December 13 that year.
This group was compared with 105,579 patients diagnosed with influenza and 236,038 patients diagnosed with any respiratory tract infection, including influenza.
Mood, anxiety or psychotic disorders affected 24 per cent of all patients, which rose to 25 per cent in those admitted to hospital, 28 per cent in people who were in intensive care and 36 per cent in people who experienced delirium.
Strokes affected two per cent of all COVID-19 patients, rising to seven per cent of those admitted to ICU and nine per cent of those with encephalopathy.
Dementia was diagnosed in 0.7 per cent of all COVID-19 patients, but five of people who had experienced delirium as a result of the virus.
