Survey reveals increase in psychiatric disorders after COVID-19
A study carried out by the Medical School of the University of São Paulo (USP) found that people who had moderate or severe COVID-19 began to register a higher incidence of psychiatric disorders after contamination. The article about the research was published in the scientific journal General Hospital Psychiatry from the Netherlands.
425 adults who had COVID-19 have been evaluated after six to nine months of hospital discharge. All of them were patients hospitalized at USP Hospital das Clínicas for at least 24 hours, between March and September 2020. Those who needed treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU) were considered severe cases and the others, moderate. Patients underwent a structured psychiatric interview, psychometric tests, and a cognitive battery.
According to the study, the prevalence of common mental disorders in this group of post-COVID patients was 32.2 percent, a higher figure than that reported in the general Brazilian population (26.8 percent). Regarding the diagnosis of depression, there was a prevalence of 8 percent, which is higher than that of the general Brazilian population (around 4 and 5 percent). Generalized anxiety disorders were noted in 14.1 percent, a result which was also higher than the prevalence in the general Brazilian population (9.9 percent).
The survey also found that psychiatric outcomes were not associated with any clinical variable related to the severity of the disease in the acute phase, that is, they were not more prevalent in those patients who had a higher degree of inflammation, for example.
“The long-term psychiatric and cognitive impairments noted after moderate or severe COVID-19 may be seen as an expression of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on brain homeostasis [balance] or a representation of nonspecific psychiatric manifestations secondary to a decrease in general health status”, reads the text of the research, which has Rodolfo Damiano, resident physician at the Institute of Psychiatry of USP School of Medicine as its first author.
The results of the survey - supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp) - can be seen here.
