Coronavirus: consequences for mental health

The spectrum of possible consequences of Covid-19 is widening week after week. Loss of taste and smell, scars on the lungs, cardiovascular complications… The list of physiological damage due to Covid-19 continues to grow. American researchers have taken an interest in the mental pathologies caused by this virus. To do this, they listed all the disorders identified in people with severe forms of coronavirus in the past. They were based in particular on SARS and MERS, which raged in 2002 and 2012.

Possibility of acute delirium

The results of this study, published in the scientific journal The Lancet Psychiatry, show that “if SARS-CoV-2 infection follows a similar course to SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV, most patients should recover without suffering mental illness.” The researchers caution, however:SARS-CoV-2 could cause delirium in a significant proportion of patients in the acute stage. Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of depression, anxiety, fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder and rarer neuropsychiatric syndromes in the long term.”

We note that in the case of SARS and MERS, one out of three hospitalized patients described the onset of post-traumatic stress disorder. Similarly, one year after the disease, 15% of patients mentioned the onset of depression and anxiety and as many complained of fatigue, stress, sleep disorders and mood swings. These sequelae could be directly linked to the decrease in the amount of oxygen reaching the brain, in the case of severe respiratory failure.

This data analysis identifies the psychiatric pathologies observed in 3,559 hospitalized patients, thus compiling 1,963 studies and 87 pre-publications. The age of patients studied varies between 12 to 68 years. Posts came from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Canada, Saudi Arabia, France, Japan, Singapore, UK and USA. The follow-up time of patients after illness depends on the studies, ranging from 60 days to 12 years.