A new review of studies published on Monday said that delirium, confusion, and agitation may be common in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 infections.
The study also said that long-term psychiatric problems may not occur in the majority of patients after fighting with the deadly disease. However, more research is still needed to support that claim, CNN reports.
Study co-author, Jonathan Rogers, Wellcome Trust clinical doctoral fellow at University College London, said that their analysis of 3,550 coronavirus cases suggest that most people will not suffer from mental health problems after recovering from the coronavirus infection.
The study was based on 72 different studies on two historical coronaviruses, as well as studies on COVID-19 to see any links between the infections and psychiatric problems. The data on the post-recovery of patients is still scarce during this time, so it makes studying the long-term effect of COVID-19 on the person's mental health.
Additionally, the study only looked at severe cases of the infection in which individuals have treated in the hospital. Therefore, this does not necessarily address the possible impact of milder or asymptomatic cases of the disease and has many limitations.
Two Historical Coronaviruses: SARS & MERS
Besides the novel coronavirus, six other coronaviruses have already infected humans in the past. Among those are the deadly MERS-CoV who killed 800 people worldwide since it appeared in 2012, and the SARS-CoV that causes severe pneumonia that killed 774 people between 2002 and 2004.
The new review of studies looked back at the mental health impact of the two viruses after patients have recovered. The results emphasized that doctors should be aware of depression, anxiety, fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder, and rarer neuropsychiatric syndromes in the longer term.
Tom Dening, a professor of dementia research at the University of Nottingham who is not part of the review, said that the study assumes it is reasonable to gather together studies from the other two major coronavirus epidemics of the last 20 years and to combine these data about the effects of COVID-19 upon mental health.
Michael Bloomfield, head of Translational Psychiatry Research Group at the University College London, said that the results from previous studies are concerning especially that one-third from past epidemics experienced post-traumatic stress disorder. So, this also seems reasonable to anticipate the same to happen with COVID-19 recovered patients.
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Why Would Mental Health Issues Happen?
Some experts said that mental issues may occur because it is directly related to the virus, like an immune response. But patients could also have concerns about the outcome of their illness, the stigma, and amnesia, or traumatic memories of the disease.
Moreover, other mental health problems may also occur in people who have not contracted the virus. Both the infected and non-infected population might be susceptible as a result of specific experiences like the widespread anxiety, social isolation, stress in health care workers, and other essential workers, and unemployment and financial concerns, according to the study.
Rogers emphasized that more data is still needed on psychiatric symptoms associated with COVID-19, so it should be a part of routine care to monitor patients for these symptoms.
David Nutt, who heads the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, said that some COVID-19 patients already need psychological assistance after recovering from the infection.
Then there is also the reality of mental fallout from spending time in an intensive care unit for so long. Previous research has indeed, a high correlation between PTSD rates and prolonged ICU admissions. As pointed out earlier, most people will not develop significant mental health symptoms, but it could be life-changing for those who do.
