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We studied how COVID affects mental health and brain disorders up to two years after infection – here’s what we found

General Research

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The occurrence of mental health conditions and neurological disorders among people recovering from COVID has been a concern since early in the pandemic. Several studies have shown that a significant proportion of adults face problems of this kind, and that the risks are greater than following other infections.

However, several questions remain. Do the risks of psychiatric and neurological problems dissipate, and if so, when? Are the risks similar in children as in adults? Are there differences between COVID variants?

Our new study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, explored these issues. In analyses led by my colleague Maxime Taquet, we used the electronic health records of about 1.25 million people diagnosed with COVID, mostly from the US. We tracked the occurrence of 14 major neurological and psychiatric diagnoses in these patients for up to two years.

Read the full article on The Conversation website, written by Professor Paul Harrison, Department of Psychiatry.

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