A new study shows that the more than 32,000 survivors of severe COVID-19 and more than 16,000 survivors of other severe respiratory infections studied in England were at significantly higher risk than the general population for new anxiety disorders, dementia, psychosis, bipolar disorder, and new neuropsychiatric drug prescriptions in the first year after hospital release.

In the observational study, published today in JAMA Psychiatry, a team led by University of Oxford researchers analyzed data from all 8.38 million adults registered in national databases from Jan 24, 2020, to Jul 7, 2021.

Risk of new psychiatric prescriptions

Relative to the general population, the 32,525 survivors of COVID-19 and 16,679 survivors of other severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) were at higher risk for subsequent diagnosis of neuropsychiatric illnesses, the investigators found, but they noted that the absolute risks were low.

The hazard ratio [HR] for anxiety in SARI survivors was 1.86 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.56 to 2.21) and 2.36 (95% CI, 2.03 to 2.74) for COVID-19 survivors. The HR for dementia was 2.55 (95% CI, 2.17 to 3.00) for SARI survivors and 2.63 (95% CI, 2.21 to 3.14) for those diagnosed as having COVID-19.

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