BREAKING—20% of recovering #COVID19 patients develop mental illness within 90 days, says large US study. Increased *first-time diagnosis* of anxiety, depression & insomnia by 2-fold! And researchers also found significantly higher risks of dementia.
https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-mental-illness-int-idUSKBN27P35N

2) The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, analysed electronic health records of 69 million people in US, with 62,000 cases of #COVID19. In the three months following testing positive, 1 in 5 survivors had first time diagnosis of anxiety, depression or insomnia.

3) The study also found that people with a pre-existing mental illness were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with #COVID19 than those without.
Mental health experts said findings add to growing evidence that COVID can affect brain & mind, increasing risk of psychiatric illnesses.

4) “COVID-19 affects the central nervous system, and so might directly increase subsequent disorders. But this research confirms that is not whole story, & that risk is increased by previous ill health,” says Simon Wessely, regius professor of psychiatry at King’s College London.

5) Just how old/frail are these people studied? Not that old (mean age 49.3), and not that overweight/obese (19.6%, much lower than typical Us), 20.1% w/ diabetes. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(20)30462-4/fulltext

6) Well, just how much more likely is one to develop *first-time* psychiatric illness or mood disorders or anxiety after #COVID19 diagnosis? Anywhere from 1.58x for risk of psychiatric illness, to 1.79x for risk of mood disorder, compared to a matched control groups.

7) Well, just how much more likely is one to develop (any, including recurrent) psychiatric illness after #COVID19 diagnosis? Anywhere from roughly 1.24x-1.49x compared to a matched control groups.

8) And “the probability of being diagnosed with dementia was increased after a diagnosis of COVID-19 compared with all control health events especially among patients older than 65 years, there was **1.89x to 3.18x higher risk of developing dementia** for those with #COVID19.

9) What about COVID severity??? “The elevated risk of psychiatric illness after #COVID19 diagnosis could not be readily explained by differences in illness severity. (Although) COVID-19 patients w/ admission had higher risk of psychiatric than patients w/out admission, 1.4x risk—

10) However, when analyzing just those not requiring inpatient admission, large differences in risk of developing psychiatric sequelae remained, with #COVID19 yielding high risk of psychiatric illnesses by 1.54x to 2.23x **even among those not hospitalized**.

11) What about flipping around, and mental illnessrisk of COVID? “Having a diagnosis of psychiatric disorder in the year before was associated with a 65% increased risk of COVID-19” compared with a cohort matched for established factors for #COVID19 but no psychiatric illness.

12) Though for psychiatric illnessCOVID mentioned above, effect was stronger among those older than younger. Yet notice that even amount those young groups 18-45, psychiatric illness still exerted higher risk of #COVID19. Thus **no age groups is immune** to the effects.

13) KEY FINDINGS SUMMARY:

”findings show that #COVID19 survivors have significantly higher rates of psychiatric diagnoses” (including first time)

”psychiatric history is a potential risk factor for being diagnosed with COVID-19, independent of known physical risk factors”

14) BOTTOMLINE: Folks—gonna level with you—I would not want this for myself or anyone I know. Death is not the only bad outcome of #COVID19—even if we survive, there are huge chronic consequences. For those still advocating herd to “infect everyone” w/out vaccine—you’re insane.

15) More worrisome study, cognitive decline in recovered #COVID19 patients was found across severity level—largest among those hospitalized (& also among those not hospitalized). How big decline in hospitalized patients? @AliNouriPhD say **equivalent to -8.5 IQ point drop!!!** https://twitter.com/alinouriphd/status/1318967587796099074