A new study found that 20 per cent of patients who get infected by the coronavirus can develop psychiatric disorders within three months after infection.

The researchers of the study published in The Lancet Psychiatry Journal found that anxiety, depression, and insomnia were the most common after-effects of Covid-19. They also identified higher risks of dementia, a form of brain impairment, in patients.

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Author of the study Paul Harrison, professor of psychiatry at the UK’s University of Oxford said: “People have been worried that Covid-19 survivors will be at greater risk of mental health problems, and our findings … show this to be likely.”

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Pre-existing illness

Doctors and scientists around the world urgently need to investigate the causes and identify new treatments for mental illness after Covid-19, Harrison said.

The researchers analysed electronic health records of 69 million people in the US, including over 62,000 Covid cases.

The findings suggested that one in five Covid-19 recovered patients had a first-time diagnosis of anxiety, depression, or insomnia.

This was about twice as likely as for other groups of patients in the same period, the researchers said.

The study also stated that patients with a pre-existing mental illness were 65 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 than those without one.

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