Covid-19 has been associated with mental illness, with both hospital and population-based studies previously proving this. However, the extent to which the virus could affect people’s mental health up to a year after recovering has now been unveiled.
Researchers from five universities across the UK have put their all into deciphering the effects of Covid-19 on mental health in a newly published study.
Taking into account whether patients had been vaccinated or hospitalised, it found that a unique combination left some people 16 times more likely to develop a serious mental illness after their bout of Covid.
The chance of mental health incidences rose between one and four weeks after getting diagnosed compared to those who didn’t get Covid.
Unvaccinated people who suffered a severe bout of the virus and ended up in hospital kept these higher chances of mental illness for up to a year after they recovered.
Incidences of depression alone were up to 16.3 times more likely for unvaccinated people who ended up in hospital with Covid-19.
People in this demographic who didn’t end up in hospital were found to be only 1.22 times more likely to develop mental illness than those who didn’t fall ill.
In comparison, vaccinated people had little change in their chances of developing mental illness if they managed to stay out of hospital with Covid-19. More severe cases of Covid were also linked to longer-term associations with new mental illnesses.
The study’s lead author from the University of Bristol, Dr. Venexia Walker, shared: “Our findings have important implications for public health and mental health service provision, as serious mental illnesses are associated with more intensive healthcare needs and longer-term health and other adverse effects.”
Jonathan Sterne, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University’s Bristol Medical School and another author on the study, noted that there are still ongoing projects and studies analysing the “associations of COVID-19 with renal, autoimmune and neurodegenerative conditions”.
Examining health data on millions people aged between 18 and 110, the study found the vaccine seemed to mitigate the adverse effects of the disease.
Over 18.6 million participants were studied before the vaccination was available, with an average age of 49, demographic of 50.2% female and over one million of which had confirmed Covid-19 diagnoses.
A further 14 million, with an average age of 53, 52.1% female and over 866,000 of which had confirmed Covid-19 diagnosis were also studied with over 10 million having been vaccinated.
Researchers from the University of Bristol Medical School, University College London (UCL), University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and Swansea University Medical School, included the likes of depression, serious mental illness, general anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, addiction, self-harm, and suicide to measure mental illnesses in this study.
The findings, published in JAMA Psychiatry earlier this week.