A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal has raised concerns about the risk of mental health of Covid-19 survivors after it was found that 20% of the survivors have been diagnosed with psychiatric disorders within 90 days.
Researchers found that survivors who had no previous psychiatric history showed increased risk of being diagnosed with one for the first time in the following 14 – 90 days after the COVID-19 diagnosis.
Anxiety, depression, insomnia and a high risk of dementia, were found among the survivors.
The study was conducted among 69 million people in the UnitedSstates, including more than 62,000 who had been diagnosed with the pandemic.
The study also found that people with pre-existing mental illness were 65 percent more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than others.
"The virus might be directly affecting the brain in some ways, maybe through the immune system, which leads to the mental health problem," Prof. Paul J Harrison, who was one of the study author told Al Jazeera.
"But more importantly, the experience of having had COVID-19 and understanding all the things that might have happened to you with all the fears and concerns that the virus led people to have, may also be a reason." he added.