Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, please call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 to connect with a trained counselor, or visit the 988 Lifeline website . Having a severe case of COVID-19 appears to be linked with an increased risk of subsequent mental illness, including depression and anxiety disorders, and a new study finds that the association is strongest among people who were not vaccinated against the disease. In the study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry , the incidence of mental illness was higher in the weeks after a COVID-19 diagnosis, but the increased incidence was much lower in people who had been vaccinated against the coronavirus compared with those who were unvaccinated.
Among people who were unvaccinated, the elevated incidence of mental illnesses was higher for up to a year after severe COVID-19. The study also found that the elevated incidence of mental illnesses was higher and lasted longer if a person was hospitalized for COVID-19, compared with not being hospitalized for COVID-19. “The main surprise was that the association of COVID-19 with subsequent mental ill-health appeared restricted to severe COVID-19 that led to hospitalization.
There was little association of COVID-19 that did not lead to hospitalisation with subsequent mental ill-health,” Dr. Jonathan Sterne, an author of the study and professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at t.