Re: Covid-19: Nearly 20% of patients receive psychiatric diagnosis within three months of covid, study finds
Dear Editor
This study looks at rates of diagnosis of mental illness post covid 19 and compares the rate of diagnosis of mental illness to 6 other health events in a matched cohort. They find a covid 19 diagnosis increases the likelihood of a diagnosis of mental illness compared to other health events although the headline above could be misleading as to the strength of this effect - from the study - "In the period between 14 and 90 days after COVID-19 diagnosis, 5·8% COVID-19 survivors had their first recorded diagnosis of psychiatric illness (F20–F48), compared with 2·5–3·4% of patients in the comparison cohorts. " (Taquet et al, Lancet Psych 2024)
Interestingly all health events had significantly greater risk of psychiatric sequelae in the period post April 2020 when the public health response to Covid 19 became most prominent in most developed countries. The suspension of normal life and routines and fear based messaging by governments is likely to have had a significant impact on population mental health. The most common diagnosis received in the study period was anxiety. More research into lockdown harms is needed.
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Re: Covid-19: Nearly 20% of patients receive psychiatric diagnosis within three months of covid, study finds
Dear Editor
This study looks at rates of diagnosis of mental illness post covid 19 and compares the rate of diagnosis of mental illness to 6 other health events in a matched cohort. They find a covid 19 diagnosis increases the likelihood of a diagnosis of mental illness compared to other health events although the headline above could be misleading as to the strength of this effect - from the study - "In the period between 14 and 90 days after COVID-19 diagnosis, 5·8% COVID-19 survivors had their first recorded diagnosis of psychiatric illness (F20–F48), compared with 2·5–3·4% of patients in the comparison cohorts. " (Taquet et al, Lancet Psych 2024)
Interestingly all health events had significantly greater risk of psychiatric sequelae in the period post April 2020 when the public health response to Covid 19 became most prominent in most developed countries. The suspension of normal life and routines and fear based messaging by governments is likely to have had a significant impact on population mental health. The most common diagnosis received in the study period was anxiety. More research into lockdown harms is needed.
Competing interests: No competing interests