Coronavirus: Study finds COVID-19 could cause long-term psychological implications; symptoms to note

As per the study, out of the 3115 COVID patients, 495 suffered from long COVID which were matched to 962 subjects with short COVID. It provided 13,324 observations.

It was found that symptoms of anxiety and depression increased immediately post a COVID-19 infection in both short and long COVID cohorts. The symptoms peaked during the first week of infection.

In both the short and long COVID patients, depressive and anxiety symptoms were almost the same 10 months before the infection. However, the depression levels upon the onset of SARs-CoV-2 infection was greater in the long COVID cohort group than in the short COVID cohort group. But scientists noted that anxiety levels were almost the same in both the groups.

According to study experts, this could be an indication that depression is a biological outcome of the SARs-CoV-2 virus and not triggered by the higher predisposition of emotional distress during the infection.

The lead researchers involved believe that the study was so far one of the largest and longest studies investigating the psychological experiences of long COVID patients.