A study by USP points out that people who had moderate or severe Covid-19 have a high prevalence of cognitive deficits and psychiatric disorders.
Patient assessments were performed between six and nine months after hospital discharge from the Hospital das Clínicas (HC) of the USP School of Medicine (FMUSP).
According to the data, 51.1% of the participants reported having noticed memory decline after infection and another 13.6% developed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Generalized anxiety disorder was diagnosed in 15.5% of the volunteers. In 8.14% of them, the problem arose after the disease.
The diagnosis of depression appears for 8% of patients – in 2.5% of them only after admission.
The complete results of the research, which was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), were published in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry.
The study is part of a project coordinated by Professor Geraldo Busatto Filho, from FMUSP.
The proposal is for doctors from different areas to monitor people treated at the HC between 2020 and 2021 in order to assess any sequelae left by Covid.
According to the study, all participants underwent a series of cognitive tests to assess skills such as memory, attention, verbal fluency and spatio-temporal orientation.
The volunteers also underwent an interview with a psychiatrist and answered standardized questionnaires used in the diagnosis of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress.
As pointed out in the article, the prevalence of “common mental disorder” (depressive symptoms, anxiety states, irritability, fatigue, insomnia, memory and concentration difficulties) in the studied group (32.2%) was higher than that reported for the group studied. Brazilian general population (26.8%) in epidemiological studies.
In these patients, the prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder (14.1%) was considerably higher than the average for Brazilians (9.9%).
The prevalence of depression found (8%) is also higher than that estimated for the general population of the country (between 4% and 5%).