News: Psychiatric symptoms may last up to two years post-COVID, study shows

People who’ve had COVID-19 are at an increased risk for psychiatric and neurologic sequelae compared to other respiratory infections, according to a study recently published in the Lancet Psychiatry. The study is “the first to attempt to examine some of the heterogeneity of persistent neurological and psychiatric aspects of COVID-19 in a large dataset," said Jonathan Rogers, MRCPsych, and Glyn Lewis, PhD, FRCPsych, both of University College London in England, in an accompanying editorial. Researchers analyzed the health records of almost 1.3 million people to acquire this data. Their findings show that, while risk of anxiety and depression rose in the first six months but faded over time, other disorders remained elevated throughout the two years that followed, Medpage Today reported.

New cases were still being diagnosed two years after infection for disorders such as:

• Brain fog
• Dementia
• Psychotic disorders
• Epilepsy
• Seizures

The data also showed children who had COVID-19 were more likely to be diagnosed with such sequelae than other children, though their likelihood was lower than that of adults. Cognitive deficit, insomnia, intracranial hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, plexus disorders, psychotic disorders, and epilepsy or seizures all showed an increased risk at six months. For people 65 years and older, the risk of any first neurologic or psychiatric diagnosis was higher than for other elders, and a notable proportion who received such a diagnosis subsequently died (particularly those diagnosed with dementia or epilepsy or seizures).

The risks of neurologic and psychiatric outcomes just before the Alpha variant emerged were similar compared with just after it appeared, but increased just after Delta emerged and remained similar for Omicron. "With Omicron as the dominant variant, although we see much milder symptoms directly after infection, similar rates of neurological and psychiatric diagnoses are observed as with Delta,” said one of the researchers at a press briefing, “suggesting that the burden on the healthcare system may continue even with variants that are less severe in other respects."

Editor’s note: To read Medpage Today’s coverage of this story, click here. To read the full study, click here. Additional ACDIS coverage of COVID-19 can be found here.