More than one in three patients infected with Covid-19 was diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric disorders within six months of being infected.
- Anxiety (17%), mood disorders (14%) and insomnia (5%) are the most common symptoms.
- The risk of developing psychological or neurological disorders increases with the severity of the infection.
- The risk of neurological or psychiatric diagnoses is overall 44% higher after Covid than after the flu.
The next wave will be psychological. A study published in the scientific journal The Lancet Psychiatry Tuesday, April 6 suggests that 34% of patients infected with Covid-19 were diagnosed with neurological or psychiatric disorders within six months of the disease. For 13% of them, it was the first diagnosis of this type. To reach these conclusions, the British researchers went through the health records of 236,379 infected patients using the American network TriNetX, which compiles the medical records of 81 million people.
The more severe the infection, the greater the risk
In detail, the study reveals that anxiety (17%), mood disorders (14%) and insomnia (5%) are the symptoms that occur most often. Neurological damage such as cerebral hemorrhages (0.6%), strokes (2.1%) and dementia (0.7%) are less frequent.
In addition, the risk of presenting psychological or neurological disorders increases according to the severity of the infection. Nearly one out of two patients admitted to intensive care (46%) received such a diagnosis within six months of their infection. There were even up to 7% of stroke among those who were hospitalized in intensive care, 2.7% of cerebral hemorrhage and almost 2% developed dementia compared to 1.3%, 0.3% respectively. and 0.4% of non-hospitalized patients.
To take the study further, the researchers compared the risks of suffering from these disorders after being diagnosed with a respiratory infection such as the flu. For this, they examined the records of 236,000 patients. The results reveal that the risk of neurological or psychiatric diagnoses is overall 44% higher after Covid than after the flu, and 16% higher than after a respiratory tract infection.
Public Health France launches an awareness campaign
To raise public awareness of mental health, Public Health France (SPF) launched on Tuesday April 6 the countryside “Talking about it is already healing”. It will consist of radio, advertising and television spots and will also be broadcast on online video platforms. “Nearly a third of the French population suffers from an anxious or depressive state, it is an epidemic within an epidemic which requires adapted, strong and lasting responses to detect psychological suffering and put in place systems to prevent symptoms and their chronicization”, explained Geneviève Chêne, the director of SPF.
Several psychologists welcomed this initiative but expressed their concern about the lack of resources implemented. In the HuffPost, they shared their fears about its lack of real effectiveness. “Iwill health professionals be able to meet the demand?”, wonder Gladys Mondière, psychologist and co-president of the French Federation of Psychologists and Psychology (FFPP) and her colleague Patrick-Ange Raoult, Secretary General of the National Union of Psychologists (SNP), lecturer in clinical psychology . The question of the price of the consultations is also debated. “Not all citizens can afford liberal consultations and my colleagues in hospitals and CMPs (medico-psychological centers) are overwhelmed”, adds Gladys Mondière.
Paying attention to symptoms in everyday life
End of March, the Mutuelles offered to pay for at least 4 consultations with psychologists “within the limit of 60 euros per session”. At the beginning of last February, already, the Court of Auditors published a report in which she had declared herself in favor of the reimbursement of liberal psychologists by Health Insurance. For two years, four departments (Bouches-du-Rhône, Haute-Garonne, Landes and Morbihan) have been experimenting with the management of “psy” consultations. The Court of Auditors wants this to be extended to the whole territory.
In the Public Health France campaign, the emphasis is on “the identification of the main symptoms of anxiety (irritability, feeling of panic) and depression (sadness, loss of interest, energy) as well as sleep problems (often associated with anxious and depressive states) through scenes of daily life.” These signals, including the “eating disorders or phobias that can alert”, as Gladys Mondière points out, should not be taken lightly. “I realize through my consultations that many people tell me ‘it’s going to be fine’, ‘I’m going to hold on’… These are precisely bad indicators which perhaps show that we are already at the end of our possibilities. psychic“, says the co-president of the French Federation of Psychologists and Psychology.
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