People who had other types of respiratory tract infections were less likely to develop a psychiatric disorder than COVID-19 patients were.
Lauren Chan, co-author of the study and a student in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences, said that the current study found a smaller effect than the earlier studies.
For the current study, published in World Psychiatry, researchers used data from the N3C to match 46,610 COVID-19 positive individuals with control patients who were diagnosed with a different respiratory tract infection.
They looked at the rate of diagnoses from 21 to 120 days after a patient's COVID diagnosis and from 120 to365 days after a patient's diagnosis.
COVID patients had a higher rate of developing a mental health problem than other respiratory tract infections. The difference adds up to a 25% increase in risk.
There was a slight increase in risk for anxiety disorders, but no change in risk for mood disorders.
Chan said that the data cohort draws from across the U.S. gave researchers a unique window into post-COVID side effects.
She said that the results show the need for both patients and health care providers to be more proactive in addressing mental health concerns.
If you're seeing some changes in how you're going through life, it's time to seek some help. "If you're a care provider, you need to be on the proactive side and start to screen for those mental health conditions and then follow up with those patients."
Chan recommended that providers call in two weeks for a check-in when patients leave the office.
She said that there could be people who are struggling with new things who need help. If you begin to have concern for yourself or a family member, it's not uncommon. It's important for you to seek care for yourself and others.
In the larger context of COVID and health care in the U.S., any increase in the amount of people seeking care will add further strain to a system that is already stretched to maximum capacity.
She said that they were going to keep having difficulties getting people the care they needed. It poses some concern if we see an increase in the number of people seeking help for post-COVID mental health conditions.
The lead author of the study, Ben Coleman from the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, is currently working on a follow-up paper to assess the association between long COVID and new-onset mental illness.
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The materials were provided by the university. The original was written by MollyRosbach. The content can be edited for style and length.
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