In a new study from VA Saint Louis Health Care System, researchers found that COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression, substance use, and sleep disorders, up to one year after initial infection.
The findings suggest that tackling mental health disorders among survivors of COVID-19 should be a priority.
Some studies have suggested that people with COVID-19 might be at increased risk of anxiety and depression, but they included only a small selection of mental health outcomes and tracked patients over a maximum of six months.
In the study, the team used data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs national healthcare databases to estimate the risks of mental health outcomes in people who survived at least 30 days after a positive COVID test result.
They identified data for 153,848 individuals and matched them to two control groups without COVID-19.
The COVID-19 group was further divided into those who were or were not admitted to the hospital during the acute phase of infection.
The researchers then followed all three groups for one year to estimate the risks of anxiety, depression and stress disorders, substance use disorders, neurocognitive decline, and sleep disorders.
They found compared with the non-infected people, people with COVID-19 showed a 60% higher risk of any mental health diagnosis or prescription at one year.
When the researchers examined mental health disorders separately, they found that COVID-19 was linked to an additional 24 per 1,000 people with sleep disorders at one year, 15 per 1,000 with depressive disorders, 11 per 1,000 with neurocognitive decline, and 4 per 1,000 with any (non-opioid) substance use disorders.
The risks were highest in people admitted to the hospital during the initial (acute) phase of COVID-19 but were evident even among those who were not admitted to the hospital.
People with COVID-19 also showed higher risks of mental health disorders than people with seasonal influenza, while people admitted to hospital for COVID-19 showed increased risks of mental health disorders compared with those admitted to hospital for any other reason.
These findings suggest that people who survive the acute phase of COVID-19 are at increased risk of mental health disorders and that tackling mental health disorders among survivors of COVID-19 should be a priority.
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The study is published in The BMJ and was conducted by Yan Xie et al.
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