1 in 3 Covid survivors suffer mental, neurological problems: study

PARIS – One in three people who overcome Covid-19 suffer from a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis six months on, according to the largest study so far published on the mental toll that long-Covid takes on survivors.

Authors said the research, printed Wednesday in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, proved that Covid-19 patients were significantly more likely to develop brain conditions than those suffering from other respiratory tract infections.

Studying the health records of more than 230,000 patients who had recovered from Covid-19, they found that 34 percent were diagnosed with a neurological or psychiatric condition within six months.

The most common conditions were anxiety (17 percent of patients) and mood disorders (14 percent).

Incidence of neurological disorders such as brain haemorrhage (0.6 percent), stroke (2.1 percent) and dementia (0.7 percent) was lower overall than for psychiatric disorders but the risk for brain disorders was generally higher in patients who had severe Covid-19.