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A third of Covid survivors suffer neurological or mental disorders: study

44 points| unionpivo | 5 years ago |reuters.com | reply

20 comments

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[+] odshoifsdhfs|5 years ago|reply
Can the study result be: "A third of anyone suffer nerological or mental disorders due to the world situation/lockdowns'?

My country just opened a couple things and I have been talking with a lot of friends/coaches/workers. Pretty much every one of them (including myself) have these symptoms, having caught covid or not. I see people that were in general 'happy' feel depressed, run down, see little hope. I see their 'face' changes from pre covid to post covid. The people that lost their jobs.

Not wanting to be pro/against lockdowns, but I believe we will see a long effects of this for years to come.

[+] ProblemFactory|5 years ago|reply
I wish I had a dogecoin for every HN comment where a study is rejected because of a possible confounding variable that the researchers did control for and reported.

From the news article:

> The disorders were significantly more common in COVID-19 patients than in comparison groups of people who recovered from flu or other respiratory infections over the same time period

They controlled for the world situation, lockdown and even being sick with another illness. Of course the knowledge that you have covid could be stressful in itself, but that's also a result of covid.

[+] hef19898|5 years ago|reply
Or it is due to general uncertainty, anxiety due to the on going pandemic, having lost someone... Countless of reasons. So the article took a subset, Covid survivors. If it is a general problem, and if so why, can only be answered by additional studies. A conclusive answer might be difficult to get so.
[+] newacct583|5 years ago|reply
> Can the study result be: "A third of anyone suffer nerological or mental disorders due to the world situation/lockdowns'?

No, because basic science says you control for stuff like that (no, I didn't read the full study) when computing your result.

Lockdowns may be difficult, and that's worth studying too. But they were clearly needed, and evidence like this is why. Covid is really bad.

[+] sleepysysadmin|5 years ago|reply
>Can the study result be: "A third of anyone suffer nerological or mental disorders due to the world situation/lockdowns'?

Mental health has a stigma and often little to no coverage/help. Therefore the 1/3rd is an absolute minimum. The actual numbers are likely far significantly higher.

World Health Org is against lockdowns https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/who-official-urges-...

This is because of the mental health concerns. The problem is that politicians are not going off experts but rather covid lockdowns are political and not based in science.

[+] andix|5 years ago|reply
Are there any theories why this is happening?

It it "just" the mentally difficult situation people are in, who get infected? Or is there some neurological damage done by the virus? Maybe even permanent damage?

[+] stult|5 years ago|reply
I am a bit suspicious of how this result is being presented in the media. The overwhelming bulk of the diagnoses are for anxiety and depression. Which seem like pretty typical reactions to an extreme emotional trauma like hospitalization during a pandemic, and are fairly common reactions to long term recovery from a major illness even during less desperate times where treatment is more readily available.

The elevated rates of stroke and dementia are more concerning, but are a less startling 7% and 2% respectively of the observed population. I’m not sure if the authors controlled well for confounding conditions either.

[+] elif|5 years ago|reply
There is preliminary data on a condition being termed Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C and MIS-A for adult and children versions), where there immune response to SARS-cov-2 causes any number of organs to become inflamed.

However, very little is known about why it manifests or how extensive it is. Brain autoimmunity or even just cardiovascular restriction due to inflammation can cause neurological effects.

* I am not a doctor, but had covid and have many of these symptoms

[+] pilsetnieks|5 years ago|reply
One mechanism was discovered that could explain the brain fog, fatigue and other neuro symptoms - virus infiltration in bone marrow which leads to megakaryocyte cells (the cells that normally produce red blood cells) entering the bloodstream, settling in lungs, and getting trapped in small brain capillaries.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/...