ah yes, the party of science...
“We were surprised by how strongly psychological distress before a COVID-19 infection was associated with an increased risk of long COVID,” said Siwen Wang, a researcher in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School who led the
study. “Distress was more strongly associated with developing long COVID than physical health risk factors such as obesity, asthma, and hypertension.”
____________________________________
Depression and other mental illnesses have been strongly associated with greater risk of more severe COVID-19 including the risk of hospitalization, and a major risk factor for long COVID
____________________________________
After analyzing the responses and comparing those who developed long COVID to those who did not, the researchers determined that distress before COVID-19 infection, including depression, anxiety, worry, perceived stress, and loneliness was associated with a 33 - 46 percent increased risk of long COVID and more than a 50 percent greater risk of daily life impairment due to long COVID.
____________________________________
U of Colorado = “The reality is that depression is very common, and a lot of people with long COVID have a history of depression. There could be an underlying personality disorder or major depressive disorder that could be informing the cognitive symptoms from COVID or making them worse"
_____________________________________
An interesting study that I encourage you to read – “
Associations of Depression, Anxiety, Worry, Perceived Stress, and Loneliness Prior to Infection With Risk of Post–COVID-19 Conditions” – was published in
JAMA Psychiatry in September. The study used data from three studies: “Nurses’ Health Study II, Nurses’ Health Study 3, and the Growing Up Today Study” and included 54,960 participants.
While there were limitations to the study, including being largely white and female, the findings have relevance for our work in psychiatry and behavioral medicine. The main observation of this study was that the risk of developing long-COVID was positively correlated with preexisting mental illness.
________________________________________
New research shows that your susceptibility to long COVID may be at least partly based on how healthy your mind is. Your chances of developing long COVID may be associated with your psychological state, according to new research. In a September 2022 study published in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers analyzed 3,193 participants who had reported COVID-19 infection and found that depression, anxiety, perceived stress, loneliness, and worry about COVID-19 were associated with a 1.3- to 1.5-fold increased risk of self-reported post–COVID-19 conditions